High rates of infection by blood parasites during the nestling phase in UK Columbids with notes on ecological associations

Studies of blood parasite infection in nestling birds rarely find a high prevalence of infection. This is likely due to a combination of short nestling periods (limiting the age at which nestlings can be sampled) and long parasite prepatent periods before gametocytes can be detected in peripheral bl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Parasitology 2017-04, Vol.144 (5), p.622-628
Main Authors: DUNN, JENNY C., STOCKDALE, JENNIFER E., BRADFORD, EMMA L., MCCUBBIN, ALEXANDRA, MORRIS, ANTONY J., GRICE, PHILIP V., GOODMAN, SIMON J., HAMER, KEITH C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Apicomplexa - genetics
Apicomplexa - isolation & purification
Bird Diseases - epidemiology
Bird Diseases - parasitology
Columbidae - parasitology
Columbidae - physiology
Ecology
Epidemiology
Female
Haemosporida - genetics
Haemosporida - isolation & purification
Male
Nesting
Nesting Behavior
Parasitemia - veterinary
Parasites
Plasmodium - genetics
Plasmodium - isolation & purification
Protozoan Infections, Animal - epidemiology
Protozoan Infections, Animal - parasitology
Sequence Analysis, DNA - veterinary
United Kingdom - epidemiology
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Summary:Studies of blood parasite infection in nestling birds rarely find a high prevalence of infection. This is likely due to a combination of short nestling periods (limiting the age at which nestlings can be sampled) and long parasite prepatent periods before gametocytes can be detected in peripheral blood. Here we examine rates of blood parasite infection in nestlings from three Columbid species in the UK. We use this system to address two key hypotheses in the epidemiology of avian haemoparasites: first, that nestlings in open nests have a higher prevalence of infection; and second, that nestlings sampled at 14 days old have a higher apparent infection rate than those sampled at 7 days old. Open-nesting individuals had a 54% infection rate compared with 25% for box-nesters, probably due to an increased exposure of open-nesting species to dipteran vectors. Nestlings sampled at 14 days had a 68% infection rate compared with 32% in nestlings sampled at 7 days, suggesting that rates of infection in the nest are high. Further work should examine nestlings post-fledging to identify rates of successful parasite infection (as opposed to abortive development within a dead-end host) as well as impacts on host post-fledging survival and behaviour.
ISSN:0031-1820
1469-8161
DOI:10.1017/S0031182016002274