ARKHANGELSK, July 28. /TASS/. Experts, participating in the Arctic Floating University expedition, tested for the first time in the Arctic a method to search for bacteria in the air near bird nests, Artemy Goncharov, leading the Biological Threats Monitoring Laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Professor of the Epidemiology, Parasitology and Disinfection Department at the Mechnikov Northwestern State Medical University, told TASS. This way, scientists want to learn whether pathogenic bacteria are able to spread through the air in bird rookeries, and want to be able to predict possible infections' outbreaks.
"In order to study a possible implementation of aerogenic transmission of pathogenic microbiota in seabird colonies, a separate task was to test the method of air sampling from bird rookeries by using a microbiological impactor. We have determined the optimal volume of air intake, which amounted to 5,000 liters," the scientist said.
An impactor is an air intake or sampler that allows experts to collect living microorganisms from the air for further examination. The work was carried out on islands of the Franz Josef Land Archipelago.
The expedition participants established that the coliform bacteria's concentration near large bird colonies reaches a level where there is a possibility of spreading pathogenic or opportunistic bacteria in microbial aerosols formed around bird rookeries.
Coliform bacteria or E. coli group bacteria are a large group of microorganisms that live in the digestive tract of humans and warm-blooded animals, including birds. They also are present in soil and plants and their presence indicates fecal contamination.
Fleas and ticks
Another element that is capable of maintaining pathogens' circulation in bird colonies is a species of fleas and ticks that parasitize them. "In the nesting substrate, which we collected in the kittiwakes' colony on the Prince George Land Island, Andrey Przyboro of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Zoology Institute, found imago and flea larvae, and the institute's specialists further on will establish to which species they belong. In addition, we removed two Ixodes sp ticks from a dead bird found on the southern coast of the Wilczek Land Island," he said. Scientists preserved two pools of adult fleas, ten specimens each, and ixodic ticks for further virological studies.
Specialists plan microbiological, including virological, studies of biomaterial samples obtained in bird colonies and nests on islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. Microbiologists will be searching for pathogens of infectious diseases, including pathogens of coli-bacteriosis, salmonellosis, pasteurellosis, yersiniosis, and viruses of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
About the expedition
The 20th voyage of the Arctic Floating University scientific and educational expedition continued from July 1 to July 22, 2026 on board the Professor Molchanov scientific research vessel. The expedition organizers are: the Lomonosov Northern Arctic Federal University and the Northern Department for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Sevhydromet). The project's official sponsors and partners are: the Russian Federation's Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Geographical Society, general sponsor - VTB, the Norilsk Nickel Company, and the Floating University Coordination Center based at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).