Diversity of avian haemosporidians in arid zones of northern Venezuela

Belo, Nayara O.; Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana; Braga, Érika Martins; Ricklefs, Robert E.

doi:10.1017/s003118201200039x

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…In addition, we found that the prevalence of Haemoproteus in birds was higher than that seen for Plasmodium . This finding is consistent with previous studies, which showed that Haemoproteus was generally more prevalent than Plasmodium [38], [40], [41]. This difference might be explained by the fact that Haemoproteus has lower pathogenicity in its host than Plasmodium [10], [42].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Prevalence Patterns of Avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus Parasites and the Influence of Host Relative Abundance in Southern China

Zhang

Wu²,

Qiang³

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

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Infectious diseases threaten the health and survival of wildlife populations. Consequently, relationships between host diversity, host abundance, and parasite infection are important aspects of disease ecology and conservation research. Here, we report on the prevalence patterns of avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus infections and host relative abundance influence based on sampling 728 wild-caught birds representing 124 species at seven geographically widespread sites in southern China. The overall prevalence of two haemoprotozoan parasites, Plasmodium and Haemoproteus, was 29.5%, with 22.0% attributable to Haemoproteus and 7.8% to Plasmodium. Haemoproteus prevalence differed significantly among different avian host families, with the highest prevalence in Nectariniidae, Pycnonotidae and Muscicapidae, whereas Plasmodium prevalence varied significantly among host species. Seventy-nine mitochondrial lineages including 25 from Plasmodium and 54 from Haemoproteus were identified, 80% of which were described here for the first time. The phylogenetic relationships among these parasites indicated stronger host-species specificity for Haemoproteus than Plasmodium. Well-supported host-family (Timaliidae) specific clades were found in both Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. The Haemoproteus tree shows regional subclades, whereas the Plasmodium clades are “scattered” among different geographical regions. Interestingly, there were statistically significant variations in the prevalence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus among the geographical regions. Furthermore, the prevalence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus were not significantly correlated with host relative abundance. Further efforts will focus on exploring the relationships between parasite prevalence and sex, age, and immune defense of the host.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Prevalence Patterns of Avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus Parasites and the Influence of Host Relative Abundance in Southern China

Zhang

Wu²,

Qiang³

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

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“…In addition, we found that Plasmodium prevalence was higher than Haemoproteus prevalence. Although this finding complies with the previous study performed in southeast Brazil, most of the studies in bird communities of South and North America show a higher prevalence of Haemoproteus [11,17,31,[34][35][36]. This contrary scenario presented by the malarial parasite community from southeast Brazil could be explained by differences of vector populations, Culicidae mosquitoes for Plasmodium and biting midges (Culicoides) and louse-flies (Psedolynchia, Microlynchia and Ornithomyia) for Haemoproteus [2], because the distribution of malaria vectors can be affected by vegetation type, rainfall patterns, mean temperatures, elevation, and geomorphology [37].…”

Section: Diversity and Distribution Of Parasite Lineagessupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In the present study, we performed the first molecular characterization of the malarial parasites in bird communities from southeast Brazil. The overall prevalence (35.3%) observed was similar to other community-level studies that used PCR screening approaches and were performed in tropical habitats of South America [16][17]26]. However, the observed prevalence was higher than that found in previous studies that adopted only blood smear screening approaches [27][28][29][30][31].…”

Section: Diversity and Distribution Of Parasite Lineagessupporting

confidence: 80%

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Exploring the Diversity and Distribution of Neotropical Avian Malaria Parasites – A Molecular Survey from Southeast Brazil

et al. 2013

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Southeast Brazil is a neotropical region composed of a mosaic of different tropical habitats and mountain chains, which allowed for the formation of bird-rich communities with distinct ecological niches. Although this region has the potential to harbor a remarkable variety of avian parasites, there is a lack of information about the diversity of malarial parasites. We used molecular approaches to characterize the lineage diversity of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus in bird communities from three different habitats in southeast Brazil based on the prevalence, richness and composition of lineages. We observed an overall prevalence of 35.3%, with a local prevalence ranging from 17.2% to 54.8%. Moreover, no significant association between prevalence and habitat type could be verified (p>0.05). We identified 89 Plasmodium and 22 Haemoproteus lineages, with 86% of them described for the first time here, including an unusual infection of a non-columbiform host by a Haemoproteus (Haemoproteus) parasite. The composition analyses of the parasite communities showed that the lineage composition from Brazilian savannah and tropical dry forest was similar, but it was different from the lineage composition of Atlantic rainforest, reflecting the greater likeness of the former habitats with respect to seasonality and forest density. No significant effects of habitat type on lineage richness were observed based on GLM analyses. We also found that sites whose samples had a greater diversity of bird species showed a greater diversity of parasite lineages, providing evidence that areas with high bird richness also have high parasite richness. Our findings point to the importance of the neotropical region (southeast Brazil) as a major reservoir of new haemosporidian lineages.

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“…We recorded lineage occurrence information using the 'Hosts and Sites' query in the MalAvi database to record the country where sampling was conducted and the academic reference for each lineage occurrence (Bensch et al 2009). To maximise the dataset, we included cyt-b lineages that were amplified from a different region of the parasite cyt-b gene (Fallon et al 2003, Belo et al 2012, Fecchio et al 2013, Svensson-Coelho et al 2013 .…”

Section: 1: Observed and Estimated Lineage Richnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of global diversity in avian haemosporidians (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus: Haemosporida): new insights from molecular data

Clark

Clegg

Lima

2014

International Journal for Parasitology

270

265

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Biogeographic patterns of parasite diversity are useful for determining how host-parasite interactions can influence speciation. However, variation in methodologies and sampling effort can skew diversity estimates. Avian haemosporidians are vector-transmitted blood parasites represented by over 1300 unique genetic lineages spread across over 40 countries. We used a global database of lineage distributions for two avian haemosporidian genera, Plasmodium and Haemoproteus, to test for congruence of diversity among haemosporidians and their avian hosts across 13 geographic regions. We demonstrated that avian haemosporidians exhibit similar diversity patterns to their avian hosts; however, specific patterns differ between genera. Haemoproteus spp. diversity estimates were significantly higher than those of Plasmodium spp. in all areas where the genera co-occurred, apart from the Plasmodium spp.-rich region of South America. The geographic distributions of parasite genera also differed, with Haemoproteus spp. absent from the majority of oceanic regions while Plasmodium spp. were cosmopolitan. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the way avian haemosporidians diverge and colonise new communities. Nevertheless, a review of the literature suggests that accurate estimates of avian haemosporidian diversity patterns are limited by (i) a concentration of sampling towards passerines from Europe and North America, (ii) a frequent failure to include microscopic techniques together with molecular screening and (iii) a paucity of studies investigating distributions across vector hosts.

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Diversity of avian haemosporidians in arid zones of northern Venezuela

Cited by 24 publications

References 52 publications

Prevalence Patterns of Avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus Parasites and the Influence of Host Relative Abundance in Southern China

Prevalence Patterns of Avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus Parasites and the Influence of Host Relative Abundance in Southern China

Exploring the Diversity and Distribution of Neotropical Avian Malaria Parasites – A Molecular Survey from Southeast Brazil

A review of global diversity in avian haemosporidians (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus: Haemosporida): new insights from molecular data

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