Habitat modification and seasonality influence avian haemosporidian parasite distributions in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Habitat modification may change vertebrate and vector-borne disease distributions. However, natural forest regeneration through secondary succession may mitigate these effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that secondary succession influences the distribution of birds and their haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in a seasonally dry tropical forest, a globally threatened ecosystem, in Brazil. Moreover, we assessed seasonal fluctuations in parasite prevalence and distribution. We sampled birds in four different successional stages at the peak and end of the rainy season, as well as in the middle and at the end of the dry season. A non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that bird communities in the pasture (i.e., highly modified) areas were different from those in the early, intermediate, and late successional areas (secondary forests). Among 461 individual birds, haemosporidian prevalence was higher in pasture areas than in the more advanced successional stages, but parasite communities were homogeneous across these areas. Parasite prevalence was higher in pasture-specialists birds (resilient species) than in forest-specialists species, suggesting that pasture-specialists may increase infection risk for co-occurring hosts. We found an increase in prevalence between the middle and end of the dry season, a period associated with the beginning of the breeding season (early spring) in southeastern Brazil. We also found effects of seasonality in the relative prevalence of specific parasite lineages. Our results show that natural forest recovery through secondary succession in SDTFs is associated with compositional differences in avian communities, and that advanced successional stages are associated with lower prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites.

Adaptive landscape genetics and malaria across divergent island bird populations

“…associated habitats. While not an important predictor of malaria infection in Tenerife(González-Quevedo et al, 2014), differences in malaria and vector abundances between vegetation types have been found elsewhere(Clark, Wells, Dimitrov, & Clegg, 2016;Ferreira Junior et al, 2017;Rubio-Palis & Zimmerman, 1997).Contrary to findings from Tenerife (González-Quevedo et al, 2014), distance to poultry was not an important predictor of malaria prevalence on Porto Santo. This may be because the effects of poultry farms as disease reservoirs (either due to the poultry themselves or due to aggregations of wild birds around them), that are driving increased malaria abundance on Tenerife (González-Quevedo et al, 2014), do not have an effect at the small scale of poultry farming witnessed on Porto Santo.…”

“…However, this result should be interpreted with caution due to small sample sizes, as only six pipits were caught on rock‐associated habitats. While not an important predictor of malaria infection in Tenerife (González‐Quevedo et al, ), differences in malaria and vector abundances between vegetation types have been found elsewhere (Clark, Wells, Dimitrov, & Clegg, ; Ferreira Junior et al, ; Rubio‐Palis & Zimmerman, ).…”

Endoparasites in Birds of Guaribas Biological Reserve, Atlantic Forest, Paraíba State, Brazil

“…Haemosporidian parasites were relatively uncommon (2.29%) compared to studies conducted in Brazil using microscopy (19)(20)(21)(22)(23) . Habitat modification can increase the prevalence of these parasites (24) and the low prevalence might be explained by the protection of the habitat and its avifauna. In all three positive cases, the low parasitemia and the high proportion of gametocytes suggest these were chronic and subclinical infections, for which blood smears are known to have inferior detection in comparison to PCR tests (25,26) .…”

Diversity and prevalence of hemoparasites of wading birds in southern Florida, USA

“…This is the first report of a blood parasite from Glossy Ibis; the single infected bird in our study had a parasite that was genetically consistent with parasites reported to be P. paranucleophilum from various birds of prey (Falconiformes and Strigiformes) from South America and Plasmodium spp. reported from Wood Storks ( Mycteria americana ) and a Streaked Flycatcher ( Myiodynastes maculatus ) from Brazil and Blue-winged Teal ( Anas discors ) from North America ( Villar et al., 2013 , Ramey et al., 2016 , Fecchio et al., 2017 Ferreira Jr. et al., 2017; Tostes et al., 2017 ). During the study on Blue-winged Teal, only adults were infected so there is currently no evidence of pMYCAME02 transmission to chicks in North America ( Ramey et al., 2016 ).…”