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Avian haemosporidian infections in rufous-collared sparrows in an Andean dry forest: diversity and factors related to prevalence and parasitaemia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2018

Héctor Cadena-Ortiz ,
Juan S. Mantilla ,
Juan Rivero de Aguilar ,
Diana Flores ,
Daniela Bahamonde ,
Nubia E. Matta  and
Elisa Bonaccorso Open the ORCID record for Elisa Bonaccorso [Opens in a new window]
Héctor Cadena-Ortiz
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb), Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Machala y Sabanilla, Quito, Ecuador Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, 12 de Octubre y Roca, Quito, Ecuador
Juan S. Mantilla
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología, Grupo de Investigación Caracterización Genética e Inmunología, Sede Bogotá-Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Juan Rivero de Aguilar
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb), Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Machala y Sabanilla, Quito, Ecuador
Diana Flores
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb), Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Machala y Sabanilla, Quito, Ecuador
Daniela Bahamonde
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, 12 de Octubre y Roca, Quito, Ecuador
Nubia E. Matta
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología, Grupo de Investigación Caracterización Genética e Inmunología, Sede Bogotá-Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Elisa Bonaccorso*
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb), Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Machala y Sabanilla, Quito, Ecuador Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto BIOSFERA y Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Diego de Robles y Vía Interoceánica, 17-1200-841 Quito, Ecuador
*
Author for correspondence: Elisa Bonaccorso, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Despite intensive research during the last few decades, understanding of ecological and physiological factors related to haemosporidian infections in birds is still fragmentary. Since more model organisms are needed in order to understand these infections in the wild, we analysed avian haemosporidian infections in the rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis, Emberizidae) in a dry forest of the Ecuadorian Andes. Parasite diversity was screened using molecular and morphological approaches. By molecular diagnosis, we identified three linages that were phylogenetically placed in the context of molecular haemosporidian diversity and associated with a morphospecies. By microscopy, we identified five described morphospecies and one additional undescribed morphospecies. We found that avian haemosporidian prevalence on the study site was 76.3%. Additionally, we used a series of generalized linear models to explore the potential relationship of parasite prevalence and parasitaemia with a set of variables related to physiological and environmental conditions. Although our results revealed associations of haemosporidian infections with precipitation, age and sampling site, the models only explained a small fraction of the variation.

Keywords

Avian malariacoinfectionsEcuadorHaemoproteusHaemosporidaNeotropicsPlasmodium
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 146 , Issue 6 , May 2019 , pp. 765 - 773
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

Present address: Instituto de Salud y Ambiente, Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá−110121, Colombia.

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