Alzheimer’s? Plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters can result in multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration

 Flesh-footed Shearwater, hand-coloured lithograph by John Gerrard Keulemans, from the Monograph of the Petrels (Tubinares) by Frederick DuCane Godman

Alix de Jersey (Tasmanian School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia) and colleagues have published in the journal Science Advances on the harmful effects of plastic ingestion by Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes chicks (also described as the Pale-footed or Sable Shearwater).

Four hundred and three pieces of plastic removed from a Flesh-footed Shearwater chick (from the publication)

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Understanding plastics’ harmful impacts on wildlife would benefit from the application of hypothesis agnostic testing commonly used in medical research to detect declines in population health.  Adopting a data-driven, proteomic approach, we assessed changes in 745 proteins in a free-living nonmodel organism with differing levels of plastic exposure.  Seabird chicks heavily affected by plastic ingestion demonstrated a range of negative health consequences:  Intracellular components that should not be found in the blood were frequently detected, indicative of cell lysis.  Secreted proteins were less abundant, indicating that the stomach, liver, and kidneys are not functioning as normal.  Alarmingly, these signatures included evidence of neurodegeneration in <90-day-old seabird chicks with high levels of ingested plastic.  The proteomic signatures reflect the effects of plastic distal to the site of exposure (i.e., the stomach).  Notably, metrics commonly used to assess condition in wildlife (such as body mass) do not provide an accurate description of health or the impacts of plastic ingestion.”

Read popular accounts of the publication here, here and here.

Reference:

de Jersey. A.M., Lavers, J.L., Wilson, R., Zosky, G.R. & Rivers-Auty, J. 2025.  Seabirds in crisis: plastic ingestion induces proteomic signatures of multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration.  Science Advances 11(11).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 13 March 2025