Bird species with wider geographical ranges have higher blood parasite diversity but not prevalence across the African-Eurasian flyway

• Published in: International journal for parasitology 2023-12, Vol.53 (14), p.787-796
• Main Authors: La Chapelle, Mary, Ruta, Marcello, Dunn, Jenny C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Bird Diseases - epidemiology; Bird Diseases - parasitology; Birds - parasitology; Haemoproteus; Haemosporida; Haemosporida - genetics; Leucozytozoon; Migration; Parasites; Phylogeny; Plasmodium; Plasmodium - genetics; Prevalence; Protozoan Infections, Animal - parasitology; Resident
• ISSN: 0020-7519; 1879-0135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.06.002

[Display omitted] •Geographic range is more important than bird migratory behaviour for parasite diversity.•Patterns differed between Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon parasites.•Species resident in both Africa and Eurasia (RB) had higher diversity than all other groups.•RB and migrants had higher Haemoproteus diversity than single-continent residents. Avian blood parasites, from the genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon, are predicted to alter their range and prevalence as global temperatures change, and host and vector ranges shift. Understanding large-scale patterns in the prevalence and diversity of avian malaria and malaria-like parasites is important due to an incomplete understanding of their effects in the wild, where studies suggest even light parasitaemia can potentially cause rapid mortality, especially in naïve populations. We conducted phylogenetically controlled analyses to test for differences in prevalence and lineage diversity of haemoparasite infection (for Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon) in and between resident and migratory species along the African-Eurasian flyway. To test whether migratory strategy or range size drives differences in parasite prevalence and diversity between resident and migrant species, we included three categories of resident species: Eurasian only (n=36 species), African only (n=41), and species resident on both continents (n=17), alongside intercontinental migrants (n=64), using a subset of data from the MalAvi database comprising 27,861 individual birds. We found that species resident on both continents had a higher overall parasite diversity than all other categories. Eurasian residents had lower Plasmodium diversity than all other groups, and both migrants and species resident on both continents had higher Haemoproteus diversity than both African and Eurasian residents. Leucocytozoon diversity did not differ between groups. Prevalence patterns were less clear, with marked differences between genera. Both Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon prevalence was higher in species resident on both continents and African residents than in migrants and Eurasian residents. Haemoproteus prevalence was lower in Eurasian residents than species resident on both continents. Our findings contrast with previous findings in the North-South American flyway, where long-distance migrants had higher parasite diversity than residents and short-distance migrants, although we found contrasting patterns for paras