Discovering potential sources of emerging pathogens: South America is a reservoir of generalist avian blood parasites

Moens, Michaël André Jean; Pérez‐Tris, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2015.08.001

Cited by 58 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Although we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the diversity, host breadth, and geographic distribution of avian haemosporidian lineages in northern South America, our results suggest that the Magdalena River Valley likely harbors several generalist parasites because at least two Plasmodium lineages (PADOM 11 and Plasmodium nucleophilum ‐DENPET03) and one Haemoproteus ( H. coatneyi ) infecting Eucometis penicillata have been found in multiple hosts and areas in the Americas, including the Antilles and North America (Durrant et al., ; González, Lotta, García, Moncada, & Matta, ; Harrigan et al., ; Kimura, Darbro, & Harrington, ; Lacorte et al., ; Levin et al., ; Marzal et al., ; Moens & Pérez‐Tris, ; Oakgrove et al., ; Ricklefs et al., ; Roos, Belo, Silveira, & Braga, ; Smith & Ramey, ). In addition, the one Plasmodium lineage infecting Manacus manacus has been previously found in another species of piprid (Blue‐crowned Manakin, Lepidothrix coronata ) in Ecuador, Brazil, and Costa Rica (Bosholn, Fecchio, Silveira, Braga, & Anciães, ; Moens & Pérez‐Tris, ). All three haplotypes that did not match MalAvi sequences (Table ) were closely related to lineages found in Neotropical birds of the same or closely related avian families (Beadell et al., ; Durrant et al., ; Lacorte et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Host species, and not environment, predicts variation in blood parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity along a humidity gradient in northern South America

Pulgarín‐R

Gómez

Robinson

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Environmental factors strongly influence the ecology and evolution of vector‐borne infectious diseases. However, our understanding of the influence of climatic variation on host–parasite interactions in tropical systems is rudimentary. We studied five species of birds and their haemosporidian parasites (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) at 16 sampling sites to understand how environmental heterogeneity influences patterns of parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity across a marked gradient in water availability in northern South America. We used molecular methods to screen for parasite infections and to identify parasite lineages. To characterize spatial heterogeneity in water availability, we used weather‐station and remotely sensed climate data. We estimated parasite prevalence while accounting for spatial autocorrelation, and used a model selection approach to determine the effect of variables related to water availability and host species on prevalence. The prevalence, distribution, and lineage diversity of haemosporidian parasites varied among localities and host species, but we found no support for the hypothesis that the prevalence and diversity of parasites increase with increasing water availability. Host species and host × climate interactions had stronger effects on infection prevalence, and parasite lineages were strongly associated with particular host species. Because climatic variables had little effect on the overall prevalence and lineage diversity of haemosporidian parasites across study sites, our results suggest that independent host–parasite dynamics may influence patterns in parasitism in environmentally heterogeneous landscapes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Host species, and not environment, predicts variation in blood parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity along a humidity gradient in northern South America

Pulgarín‐R

Gómez

Robinson

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Nonetheless, the geographic and host distributions of OZ14, OZ45, MI05 and KZ01 suggest that despite host mobility between breeding and wintering regions, some lineages transmitted on North American breeding grounds have not established transmission cycles in the Caribbean. Based on descriptions of parasite assemblages in resident hosts in the Caribbean region (Fallon et al, ; Ricklefs et al, ; Soares et al, ), Ecuador (Moens & Pérez‐Tris, ; Svensson‐Coelho et al, ), Colombia (González, Lotta, García, Moncada, & Matta, ; Pulgarín‐R et al, ) and Brazil (Fecchio et al, ), resident birds of the Neotropics appear to be either incompetent or suboptimal hosts for lineages that commonly occur in North America.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neotropical migratory and resident birds occurring in sympatry during winter have distinct haemosporidian parasite assemblages

Soares

Latta²,

Ricklefs

2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim We compared the parasite assemblages of over‐wintering migratory birds and permanent residents on the wintering grounds. We determined whether parasite sharing between migratory and resident birds is influenced by host phylogenetic relatedness. We then inferred whether migratory birds transport haemosporidian parasite lineages between the breeding and wintering grounds. Location Sierra de Bahoruco National Park, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola. Taxa Migratory and resident birds (primarily Aves: Passeriformes) and their haemosporidian parasites (order Haemosporida, Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Parahaemoproteus). Methods We used mist nets to capture birds in thorn scrub, broadleaf dry forests and pine forests during midwinter. We used molecular methods to recognize haemosporidian parasites in blood samples, and genotyped infections based on the nucleotide differences in a region of the parasite cytochrome b gene. Results and Main Conclusion We identified 505 infections by 32 haemosporidian parasite lineages in 1,780 blood samples from 37 resident species, and in 901 blood samples from 14 overwintering migratory species, over five years at the same sites. Infection prevalence varied among migratory species from zero to 13%, whereas infection prevalence among resident species ranged up to 77%. Host relatedness did not predict parasite assemblage similarity. We discuss four hypotheses for the rarity of haemosporidian infections in migratory birds during winter, and for the infrequency of parasite sharing between migratory and resident birds: (a) relative abundance and host preferences of dipteran vectors lower parasite transmission to migratory birds; (b) parasite lineages adapted to infect endemic Caribbean hosts are unable to infect migratory species; (c) the physiology of migratory birds after migration and during winter reduces parasite survival; and (d) infected individuals suffer more pronounced mortality rates during migration. We highlight the link between host–parasite coevolution and the physiological adaptations associated with avian seasonal migration.

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“…This parasite was the only one of 10 tested parasites to show this pattern, indicating that the strategy to infect unrelated but ecologically similar host species is rare in Melanesian avian malaria parasites. Relying only on MPD‐based phylospecificity, ZOSFLA04 would likely be classified a ‘host generalist’ that infects numerous unrelated hosts (Clark & Clegg ; Moens & Pérez‐Tris ). Instead, using multiple timescales to assess phylogenetic (clustered NTSTD* , overdispersed STD* ) and ecological dispersion (clustered STD* ) indicated that perhaps this parasite is a ‘habitat specialist’ capable of infecting historically unrelated hosts that use similar habitats (Zukal et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while host specificity is commonly quantified in avian malaria research, inferences have to date relied on specificity indices that ignore host ecological attributes (Ewen et al . ; Moens & Pérez‐Tris ; Olsson‐Pons et al . ; but see Svensson‐Coelho et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating phylogenetic and ecological distances reveals new insights into parasite host specificity

Clark

Clegg

2017

Molecular Ecology

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The range of hosts a pathogen infects (host specificity) is a key element of disease risk that may be influenced by both shared phylogenetic history and shared ecological attributes of prospective hosts. Phylospecificity indices quantify host specificity in terms of host relatedness, but can fail to capture ecological attributes that increase susceptibility. For instance, similarity in habitat niche may expose phylogenetically unrelated host species to similar pathogen assemblages. Using a recently proposed method that integrates multiple distances, we assess the relative contributions of host phylogenetic and functional distances to pathogen host specificity (functional-phylogenetic host specificity). We apply this index to a data set of avian malaria parasite (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus spp.) infections from Melanesian birds to show that multihost parasites generally use hosts that are closely related, not hosts with similar habitat niches. We also show that host community phylogenetic ß-diversity (Pßd) predicts parasite Pßd and that individual host species carry phylogenetically clustered Haemoproteus parasite assemblages. Our findings were robust to phylogenetic uncertainty, and suggest that phylogenetic ancestry of both hosts and parasites plays important roles in driving avian malaria host specificity and community assembly. However, restricting host specificity analyses to either recent or historical timescales identified notable exceptions, including a 'habitat specialist' parasite that infects a diversity of unrelated host species with similar habitat niches. This work highlights that integrating ecological and phylogenetic distances provides a powerful approach to better understand drivers of pathogen host specificity and community assembly.

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Discovering potential sources of emerging pathogens: South America is a reservoir of generalist avian blood parasites

Cited by 58 publications

References 38 publications

Host species, and not environment, predicts variation in blood parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity along a humidity gradient in northern South America

Host species, and not environment, predicts variation in blood parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity along a humidity gradient in northern South America

Neotropical migratory and resident birds occurring in sympatry during winter have distinct haemosporidian parasite assemblages

Integrating phylogenetic and ecological distances reveals new insights into parasite host specificity

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