Title: A comparison of avian haemosporidian parasite communities across the strait of Gibraltar
Abstract:I used molecular tools to examine the diversity of haemosporidian parasites from the genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon in birds of Northwest Africa and Northwest Iberia. In total, 459 ...I used molecular tools to examine the diversity of haemosporidian parasites from the genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon in birds of Northwest Africa and Northwest Iberia. In total, 459 birds of 36 species from Portugal and 324 birds of 46 species from Morocco were tested using PCR for the presence of infections.We identified a total of 169 unique haemosporidian lineages. We found 127 parasite lineages in North Africa and 74 lineages in Iberia. Only 32 lineages were shared between the study areas. Overall prevalence was higher in Morocco, where 79% of the birds carried haemosporidian infections compared to only 44% in Iberia. The rate at which new parasite lineages were discovered with increasing sample size did not differ between the areas, however, the higher infection prevalence in Morocco translated into greater haemosporidian diversity compared with Portugal. The number of hosts from which a parasite lineage was recovered varied from one to sixteen. Parasite specificity varied among parasite genera. Haemoproteus was the most host-specific and Plasmodium was the most host-generalist. The composition of haemosporidian communities differed between Maghreb and Iberia. Haemoproteus was more common in Maghreb but Plasmodium dominated in Iberia. Infections with parasites found in both areas accounted for 63% of total infections. However, no correlation was found between the number of lineage observations in Iberia and Morocco for any parasite genus, suggesting that the parasite composition of both areas is different at both levels – the generic composition and prevalence of individual lineages.Read More
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-12-03
Language: en
Type: dissertation
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Cited By Count: 2
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