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SUMMARY 26Studies of blood parasite infection in nestling birds rarely find a high prevalence 27 of infection. This is likely due to a combination of short nestling periods (limiting 28 the age at which nestlings can be sampled) and long parasite prepatent periods 29 before gametocytes can be detected in peripheral blood. Here, we examine rates 30 of blood parasite infection in nestlings from three Columbid species in the UK. 31We use this system to address two key hypotheses in the epidemiology of avian 32 haemoparasites: first, that nestlings in open nests have a higher prevalence of 33 infection; and second, that nestlings sampled at 14 days old have a higher 34 apparent infection rate than those sampled at 7 days old. Open-nesting 35 individuals had a 54% infection rate compared to 25% for box-nesters, probably 36 due to an increased exposure of open-nesting species to dipteran vectors. 37Nestlings sampled at 14 days had a 68% infection rate compared to 32% in 38 nestlings sampled at 7 days, suggesting that rates of infection in the nest are 39 high. Further work should examine nestlings post-fledging to identify rates of 40 successful parasite infection (as opposed to abortive development within a dead-41 end host) as well as impacts on host post-fledging survival and behaviour. 42 43

European honey bees (Apis mellifera) are critically important to global food production by virtue of their pollination services but are severely threatened by deformed wing virus (DWV) especially in the presence of the external parasite Varroa destructor. DWV exists as many viral strains with the two major variants (DWV-A and DWV-B) varying in virulence. A single plasmid standard was constructed containing three sections for the specific determination of DWV-A (VP2 capsid region), DWV-B (IRES) and a conserved region suitable for total DWV (helicase region). The assays were confirmed as specific and discriminatory with limits of detections of 25, 25 and 50 genome equivalents for DWV-A, DWV-B and total-DWV, respectively. The methods were successfully tested on Apis mellifera and V. destructor samples with varying DWV profiles. The new method determined a more accurate total DWV titre in samples with substantial DWV-B than the method currently described in the COLOSS Beebook. The proposed assays could be utilized for the screening of large quantities of bee material for both a total DWV load overview along with more detailed investigations into DWV-A and DWV-B profiles.

HighlightsFirst in vitro culture system for Anaplasma centrale.A. centrale infected and grew in two out of 32 tick cell lines tested.Potential for safer and more ethical bovine anaplasmosis vaccine.