Temporal patterns of occurrence and transmission of the blood parasite Haemoproteus payevskyi in the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus
Författare
Summary, in English
We studied the prevalence and intensity of the haemosporidian blood parasite Haemoproteus payevskyi in great reed warblers at Lake Kvismaren (6 years) and Lake Segersjo (3 years) in Sweden. Based on microscopic inspection of slides from 282 adult birds, 20.6% showed infection of H. payevskyi in circulating red blood cells in at least 1 year. For parasite prevalence, there was no difference between years, sex, and age classes. However, parasite intensity was higher in females than in males, and this was most pronounced in 1-year-old birds. Individuals scored to carry parasites in year (n) were more likely to show parasite infection year (n + 1) than birds scored to be parasite-free in year (n) . None of 99 juvenile birds examined at the breeding site in late summer, 4-9 weeks after hatching, showed infection of H. payevskyi. Parasite intensity in infected adult birds decreased in the course of the breeding season and no new or relapse infections were observed during this period. Thus, our data imply that in the great reed warbler, a long-distance migrant to tropical Africa, transmission of H. payevskyi occurs on wintering sites or at stopover sites during migration.
Publiceringsår
2007
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
401-409
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Journal of Ornithology
Volym
148
Issue
4
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Springer
Ämne
- Biological Sciences
Nyckelord
- long-distance migration
- Acrocephalus arundinaceus
- parasite transmission
- avian malaria
- host-parasite interactions
Status
Published
Projekt
- Long-term study of great reed warblers
- Malaria in birds
Forskningsgrupp
- Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 2193-7206