Factors affecting the distribution of haemosporidian parasites within an oceanic island

Padilla, David P, Illera, Juan Carlos, Gonzalez-Quevedo, Catalina, Villalba, Miry and Richardson, David S ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7226-9074 (2017) Factors affecting the distribution of haemosporidian parasites within an oceanic island. International Journal for Parasitology, 47 (4). pp. 225-235. ISSN 0020-7519

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Abstract

Understanding how different ecological and evolutionary processes influence the distribution of pathogens within the environment is important from many perspectives including wildlife epidemiology, evolutionary ecology and conservation. The simultaneous use of ecological and evolutionary frameworks can enhance our conceptual understanding of host-parasite interactions, however such studies are rare in the wild. Using samples from 12 bird species caught across all habitats existing on an oceanic island, we evaluated how environmental variables, parasite host specificity and parasite phylogenetic relationships determine the distribution and prevalence of haemosporidians (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon) in the wild living avifauna. Differences were found in the prevalence of Plasmodium, but not Leucocytozoon, strains between habitats. The warmest temperature best predicted Plasmodium prevalence in the low altitude habitats, which had the highest incidence of Plasmodium. The prevalence of Leucocytozoon lineages was associated with natural factors, i.e. rainfall, temperature and habitat, but the two most important predictors (from model averaging) for models of Leucocytozoon were anthropogenic: poultry farms and distance to a water reservoir. We found no relationship between local (Tenerife, Canary Islands) versus global host range indices (which assess the diversity of hosts that a parasite is observed to infect), thus global generalist lineages do not behave in the same way on Tenerife (i.e. they infected less avian hosts than was expected). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the most abundant haemosporidians on Tenerife grouped with lineages found in African host species. Our data indicate that climatic and anthropogenic factors, plus proximity to the African mainland, are the main factors influencing the presence and distribution of avian haemosporidians on Tenerife. Future climate projections for the archipelago foresee significant temperature increases which would, given our results, increase rates of Plasmodium infection in bird species in all habitats. Such patterns could be of concern if those increase mortality rates in the unique avifauna of these islands.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright © 2017 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	avian haemosporidian,canary islands,community level,environmental variables,host specificity,oceanic islands,parasite biogeography,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2017 01:40
Last Modified:	13 May 2023 00:03
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63080
DOI:	10.1016/j.ijpara.2016.11.008

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