Dutch House Martins Delichon urbicum gain blood parasite infections over their lifetime, but do not seem to suffer

Abstract

In a southern Spanish population of the colonial-breeding Afrotropical migrant House Martins Delichon urbicum, a high overall prevalence of (molecularly assayed) haemosporidian infections (in the non-parasitological literature usually denoted with the inclusive term 'malaria') was associated with negative fitness consequences for individuals carrying single or double infections. To verify this in a northern population, we here report on the occurrence of malaria in 112 fledgling and 358 adult House Martins from The Netherlands. Repeatability of molecular essays was 94.4% (n = 125). Malaria was not found in any of the fledglings, but 77% of the adults carried single or double infections of two Haemoproteus haplotypes (Delurb1, Delurb2) and five Plasmodium haplotypes (GRW2, GRW9, GRW11, COLL6 and Turdus1). The two Haemoproteus and two of the Plasmodium haplotypes overlapped with nine haplotypes observed in Spain, with Dutch birds showing another four. Haemoproteus infections were common (occurring in 70% of adult samples) and Plasmodium was rare (9%). Molecularly sexed females with blood parasite infections tended towards a higher chance of double infection (33%) than males (23%). Of 64 cases of birds captured in successive years, 23% showed no change in infection status, 5% lost infection, and there was an 85% chance for adults to gain a 'malaria' type. Within a single breeding season, infection status did not change in 6 of 13 cases (46%). However, in 6 of the 7 cases of change (86%), there was loss of a Haemoproteus infection. Infection status did not correlate with body mass or body size, tail asymmetry, occurrence of louse flies, nor with the likelihood of recapture in the subsequent year. The limited evidence so far suggests that House Martins get infected away from the European breeding grounds.

A quantitative PCR protocol for detecting specific Haemoproteus lineages: molecular characterization of blood parasites in a Sedge Warbler population from southern Poland

“…Its main advantage is superior specificity, as it amplifies distinct avian malaria lineages. The effects of coexisting parasite lineages have drawn increasing interest (Valkiūnas et al 2003;Losieau et al 2010;Asghar et al 2011;Zehtindjiev et al 2011;Piersma and van der Velde 2012). Mixed infections might be expected to be especially severe (Graham et al 2005;Davidar and Morton 2006), hence the need for a protocol such as ours in future bird studies.…”

“…Coexisting parasites are often reported in birds (Valkiūnas et al 2003;Losieau et al 2010;Asghar et al 2011;Zehtindjiev et al 2011;Piersma and van der Velde 2012), but their effects are largely unknown. Some studies show aggravated effects of avian malaria co-infection (Marzal et al 2008) but others do not (Sanz et al 2002).…”

Avian haemosporidian persistence and co-infection in great tits at the individual level

“…At the individual level Hasselquist et al [25] found that the likelihood of retaining the same infection status (infected vs. uninfected) for Haemoproteus payevskyi was higher than the probability of experiencing a change in status. Knowles et al [26] showed that 26% of Plasmodium infection in individual blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus ) from the UK could be lost over time, Piersma and van der Velde [27] found that 23% of house martins ( Delichon urbicum ) in the Netherlands showed no haemosporidian infection status changes over time and Latta and Ricklefs [28] found high individual turn-over in haemosporidian infections between years in various host species on the island of Hispaniola.…”

Limits to sustained energy intake. XXII. Reproductive performance of two selected mouse lines with different thermal conductance

“…The 'heat dissipation limit (HDL) theory' (Speakman and Król, 2010) suggests that intake is constrained by the capacity to dissipate the heat generated as a by-product of food utilisation and milk production. Finally, a trade-off idea suggests that working beyond a certain limit generates negative physiological consequences that impact survival (Drent and Daan, 1980;Daan et al, 1996;Piersma, 2011;Piersma and van der Velde, 2012). The HDL theory could be considered a special case of this latter idea, because the implication is that processing food and elevating metabolic rate beyond the heat dissipation capacity leads to hyperthermia, with direct or indirect negative consequences for survival.…”