Temporal patterns of occurrence and transmission of the blood parasite Haemoproteus payevskyi in the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus
Author
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.
Publishing year
2007
Language
English
Pages
401-409
Publication/Series
Journal of Ornithology
Volume
148
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Biological Sciences
Keywords
- long-distance migration
- Acrocephalus arundinaceus
- parasite transmission
- avian malaria
- host-parasite interactions
Status
Published
Project
- Long-term study of great reed warblers
- Malaria in birds
Research group
- Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2193-7206