Importance of infection of haemosporidia blood parasites during different life history stages for long‐term reproductive fitness of collared flycatchers

Abstract

The interaction between birds and haemosporidia blood parasites is a well‐used system in the study of parasite biology. However, where, when and how parasites are transmitted is often unclear and defining parasite transmission dynamics is essential because of how they influence parasite‐mediated costs to the host. In this study, we used cross‐sectional and longitudinal data taken from a collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis population to investigate the temporal dynamics of haemosporidia parasite infection and parasite‐mediated costs to host fitness. We investigated host–parasite interactions starting at the nestling stage of the bird's life‐cycle and then followed their progress over three breeding attempts to quantify their fitness – measured as the number of offspring they produced that recruited back into the breeding population. We found that the majority of haemosporidia blood parasite infections occurred within the first year of life and that the most common parasite lineages that infected the breeding population also infected juvenile birds in the natal environment. Moreover, our findings suggest that collared flycatcher nestlings in poorer condition could be at a higher risk of haemosporidia blood parasite infection. In this study, only female and not male bird fitness was adversely affected by parasite infection and the cost of infection on female fitness depended on the timing of transmission. In conclusion, our study indicates that in collared flycatchers, early‐life is potentially important for many of the interactions with haemosporidia parasite lineages, and evidence of parasite‐mediated costs to fitness suggest that these parasites may have influenced the host population dynamics.

Physiological and morphological correlates of blood parasite infection in urban and non-urban house sparrow populations

“…Overall, our results indicate that infected juveniles are larger and in better condition than uninfected juveniles, and a similar result was found in another study on the same species [45]. Blood parasites may be associated with an increased risk of mortality [21,23,83], especially during primo infection, and this risk may increase when juveniles are in poor condition or not fully grown (small and light individuals, [16,18,111]). This may explain why we, unexpectedly, found that infected juveniles were larger and in better condition that uninfected ones.…”

Influence of the haemosporidian Leucocytozoon spp. over reproductive output in a wild Neotropical passerine, the Thorn‐tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda)

“…A similar result has been reported in an experimental study in Blue Tits (Podmokła et al 2014). Similarly, infected parents produced heavier Collared Flycatchers Ficedula albicollis nestlings (Kulma et al 2014), higher offspring survival of Hawaii Amakihis nestlings (Kilpatrick et al 2006), and higher provisioning rates (Richner et al 1995) Early life is an important period for the interactions with haemosporidian parasites (Valkiūnas 2005, Hammers et al 2016, Fletcher et al 2019, López-Calderón et al 2019. For example, most of the infections occur within the first year in Seychelles Warblers Acrocephalus sechellensis Hammers et al 2016) and in Collared Flycatchers.…”

“…However, haemosporidian parasite infection has shown no long-term effects in the offspring recruitment of Great Red Warblers Acrocephalus arundinaceus (Bensch et al 2007) or in the brood size of Great Tits (de Jong et al 2014). These studies have pioneered our understanding of the complex outcomes of haemosporidian parasites in wild birds, in particular for the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus (Marzal et al 2005, Knowles et al 2009, Asghar et al 2015a, Fletcher et al 2019, while the genus Leucocytozoon has received less attention (but see Karell et al 2017). Furthermore, most existing research has been developed in classical model bird species from Europe and North America, and hence there is a need to address studies in Neotropical bird species (Cuevas et al 2020a).…”

Avian Haemosporidian Diversity on Sardinia: A First General Assessment for the Insular Mediterranean

“…Blood parasite pathogenic potential can negatively affect wild bird's survival probability and consequently can also affect population dynamics [1][2][3][4]. By extension, parasite infections can have conservation impacts, particularly for small populations or declining bird species [3].…”