Evolutionary drivers of sex-specific parasite prevalence in wild birds

Males and females often differ in ecology, behaviour and lifestyle, and these differences are expected to lead to sex differences in parasite susceptibility. However, neither the sex differences in parasite prevalence, nor their ecological and evolutionary drivers have been investigated across a bro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2024-08, Vol.291 (2028), p.20241013
Main Authors: Valdebenito, José O, Jones, William, Székely, Tamás
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Animals, Wild - parasitology
Biological Evolution
Bird Diseases - epidemiology
Bird Diseases - parasitology
Birds - parasitology
Ecology
Female
Haemosporida - physiology
Male
Prevalence
Protozoan Infections, Animal - epidemiology
Protozoan Infections, Animal - parasitology
Seasons
Sex Characteristics
Sex Factors
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Summary:Males and females often differ in ecology, behaviour and lifestyle, and these differences are expected to lead to sex differences in parasite susceptibility. However, neither the sex differences in parasite prevalence, nor their ecological and evolutionary drivers have been investigated across a broad range of taxa using phylogenetically corrected analyses. Using the most extensive dataset yet that includes 755 prevalence estimates from 151 wild bird species in a meta-analytic framework, here we compare sex differences in blood and gastrointestinal parasites. We show that despite sex differences in parasite infection being frequently reported in the literature, only infections were more prevalent in females than in males. Notably, only seasonality was strongly associated with the sex-specific parasite prevalence of both and , where birds showed greater female bias in prevalence during breeding periods compared to the non-breeding period. No other ecological or sexual selection variables were associated with sex-specific prevalence of parasite prevalence. We suggest that much of the variation in sex-biased prevalence could be idiosyncratic, and driven by local ecology and behavioural differences of the parasite and the host. Therefore, breeding ecology and sexual selection may only have a modest influence on sex-different parasite prevalence across wild birds.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2024.1013