Patterns of avian haemosporidian infections vary with time, but not habitat, in a fragmented Neotropical landscape

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 31;13(10):e0206493. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206493. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Habitat loss has the potential to alter vertebrate host populations and their interactions with parasites. Theory predicts a decrease in parasite diversity due to the loss of hosts in such contexts. However, habitat loss could also increase parasite infections as a result of the arrival of new parasites or by decreasing host immune defenses. We investigated the effect of habitat loss and other habitat characteristics on avian haemosporidian infections in a community of birds within a fragmented landscape in northwest Ecuador. We estimated Plasmodium and Haemoproteus parasite infections in 504 individual birds belonging to 8 families and 18 species. We found differences in infection status among bird species, but no relationship between forest fragment characteristics and infection status was observed. We also found a temporal effect, with birds at the end of the five-month study (which ran from the end of the rainy season thru the dry season), being less infected by Plasmodium parasites than individuals sampled at the beginning. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between forest area and Culicoides abundance. Taken as a whole, these findings indicate little effect of fragment characteristics per se on infection, although additional sampling or higher infection rates would have offered more power to detect potential relationships.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bird Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Ecosystem*
  • Ecuador
  • Forests*
  • Haemosporida*
  • Protozoan Infections, Animal / epidemiology*

Grants and funding

This work received financial support from Conservation Food and Health Foundation; Conservation, Research and Education Opportunities International; Disney Conservation Fund; National Science Foundation (EAGER #1548548, DDIG #1501514); Ornithological Council; Tulane University; the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica (convocatoria a proyectos 2014) and Universidad San Francisco de Quito (proyecto HUBI 5433).