Parasites in space and time: a case study of haemosporidian spatiotemporal prevalence in urban birds.

Parasites in space and time: a case study of haemosporidian spatiotemporal prevalence in urban birds. Int J Parasitol. 2019 Jan 20;: Authors: Santiago-Alarcon D, MacGregor-Fors I, Falfán I, Lüdtke B, Segelbacher G, Schaefer HM, Renner S Abstract Prevalence responses to anthropic factors differ across hosts and parasite species. We here analyzed the spatiotemporal variation of avian haemosporidian prevalence in bird assemblages of the Mooswald forest (i.e., urban greenspace; Freiburg, Germany), in response to local environmental features (e.g., water sources, human presence (visited)/absence (unvisited)) and bird-level traits (e.g., body condition, age, sex) in 2 years. We used a nested PCR protocol (mitochondrial (mt)DNA cytochrome b (cyt b) gene) and microscopy to determine haemosporidian infections. Prevalence was analyzed using a general linear multi-model (glmulti) approach with Akaike information criterion corrected for small samples (AICc), with subsequent model inferences using a GLMM on the best selected model bird species as a random factor. Analyses were conducted for the main understory bird species (Blackcap - Sylvia atricapilla, Chaffinch - Coereba flaveola, Great Tit - Parus major, Blue Tit - Cyanestes caeruleus, European Robin - Erithacus rubecula, Blackbird - Turdus merula, Song Thrush - Turdus philomelos). We further conducted spatial autocorrelation analyses for all haemosporidian infections, and classification an...
Source: International Journal for Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: Int J Parasitol Source Type: research