Haemoproteus infection status of collared flycatcher males changes within a breeding season

Abstract

In ecological studies of haemosporidian parasites, prevalence is typically considered as a 3 stable attribute. However, little is known about the possible within-host dynamics of these 4 parasites that may originate from environmental fluctuations, parasite life cycles and the 5 ability of hosts to suppress or clear infection. We blood sampled male collared flycatchers 6Ficedula albicollis twice within a breeding season and investigated the determinants of initial 7 infection status and change in infection status. We found that older males tended to be 8 initially more infected at courtship. Change in infection status was unrelated to male traits, 9however, we detected a widespread disappearance of Haemoproteus pallidus infection from 10 the blood from courtship to nestling rearing. The probability of change in infection status 11 increased with the time elapsed between sampling occasions. This suggests that the 12 disappearance of infection from the blood was either due to an active parasite suppression 13 mechanism, or due to the beginning of the latent phase in the parasite life-cycle. Initial 14 infection status or disappearance of infection from the blood showed no correlation with 15 breeding success. Our results show that Haemoproteus pallidus infection status and thus 16 prevalence are dynamically changing attributes and this has widespread practical and 17 ecological implications. 18 19

Intra-individual changes in haemosporidian infections over the nesting period in great tit females

“…None of the females completely cleared the infection from the peripheral blood, although some females carrying a mixed infection lost the lineage or the lineage was replaced by a new one(s). In contrast, in the majority of other studies the predominant type of infection change was the loss of parasites from the peripheral blood (Knowles et al 2011; Piersma and van der Velde 2012; Szöllősi et al 2016, but see Grillo et al 2012). For example, in a long-distance migrant, collared flycatchers ( Ficedula albicollis ), 76.5% of males infected with H. pallidus during courtship lost this infection by the nestling rearing period (Szöllősi et al 2016), while in non-migratory blue tits ca 20% of females lost Plasmodium infections over the 2-week period spanning the nestling stage (Knowles et al 2011).…”

“…Because of differences in physiology associated with migratory behaviour and exposure to a more diverse parasite community (on breeding and wintering grounds and at stopover sites) (Waldenström et al 2002; Garvin et al 2006; Hellgren et al 2007), migratory and non-migratory birds may differ with respect to patterns of within-seasonal changes in haemosporidian infections. Current data indicate that in migrants most individuals retain the infection status over the course of the breeding period and when the change occurs, it is dominated by disappearance of infection from the peripheral blood (Dale et al 1996; Hasselquist et al 2007; Piersma and van der Velde 2012; Szöllősi et al 2016, but see Marzal et al 2005 for a predominance of infection gains). The few studies focusing on non-migratory species suggest the existence of a similar pattern, namely that most individuals retain the infection status with the progress of the nesting period, and in the group of birds transitioning between infection status, infection loss is more common than its gain, although this pattern is not necessarily followed by all parasite species (Merilä and Andersson 1999; Knowles et al 2011).…”

Interspecific transfer of parasites following a range‐shift in Ficedula flycatchers

“…However, it is possible that we have failed to detect this lineage in our relatively small sample size ( n = 67) of collared flycatchers from Poland. hPFC1 has also recently been detected in extremely low levels in collared flycatchers from Hungary, in a much more extensively screened population of birds, which suggests that it may occasionally find a collared flycatcher host in Central Europe (Szöllősi et al, ). hPHSIB1 appears to have a broader host range; also being present in 15 other passerine species.…”

Host-parasite interaction explains variation in prevalence of avian haemosporidians at the community level

“…Our results also showed that breeding season affected prevalence displayed in the community. Previous studies have shown that, during breeding season prevalence of these parasite significantly increase [64,65] as a consequence of vector availability. The increase of vectors in the community may expand blood parasites among individuals and, therefore, increase prevalence [36].…”