Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY
Volume 51, Issue 11, Pages 899-911Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.04.003
Keywords
Avian malaria; Plasmodium; Haemoproteus; Haemosporidian parasites; Amplification effect; Dilution effect
Categories
Funding
- Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico [FONDECYT 1150517, 1130948, 1170972, 21171252]
- European Union [691149]
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The study found that Haemoproteus has higher prevalence and diversity compared to Plasmodium, largely influenced by their avian hosts and environmental factors. Additionally, the prevalences of Haemoproteus and Plasmodium are positively correlated with host diversity, suggesting a possible amplification effect.
The specialist versus generalist strategies of hemoparasites in relation to their avian host, as well as environmental factors, can influence their prevalence, diversity and distribution. In this paper we investigated the influence of avian host species, as well as the environmental and geographical factors, on the strategies of Haemoproteus and Plasmodium hemoparasites. We determined prevalence and diversity by targeting their cytochrome b (Cytb) in a total of 2,590 passerine samples from 138 localities of Central and South America, and analysed biogeographic patterns and host-parasite relationships. We found a total prevalence of 23.2%. Haemoproteus presented a higher prevalence (15.3%) than Plasmodium (4.3%), as well as a higher diversity and host specificity. We determined that Plasmodium and Haemoproteus prevalences correlated positively with host diversity (Shannon index) and were significantly influenced by bird diversity, demonstrating a possible amplification effect. We found an effect of locality and the avian family for prevalences of Haemoproteus and Plasmodium. These results suggest that Haemoproteus is more specialist than Plasmodium and could be mostly influenced by its avian host and the Andes Mountains. (c) 2021 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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