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OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to characterise tick species responsible for avian tick infestations in the UK, to analyse various risk factors for tick-related syndrome in tick-infested birds and to test samples for the presence of certain tick-transmitted pathogens.

To the authors' knowledge, these are the first reported cases of Plasmodium in Calyptorhynchus. We hypothesised that the maintenance of these two cockatoo species in ground level aviaries in a low-altitude geographic zone resulted in exposure of birds to mosquito vectors of endemic avian Plasmodium. Black cockatoos roost and forage in the mid to high canopy of forests in the wild, outside the likely spatiotemporal distribution of relevant haemosporidian vectors. It is therefore likely that these birds had immunological naivety and susceptibility to infection with Plasmodium circulating in wild passerines.