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

Int J Parasitol. 2023 Jul 17:S0020-7519(23)00152-2. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.06.002. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAvian 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, ...
Source: International Journal for Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Source Type: research