Host Specificity And Co-Speciation In Avian Haemosporidia In The Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Host and pathogen ecology are often closely linked, with evolutionary processes often leading to the development of host specificity traits in some pathogens. Host specificity may range from ‘generalist’, where pathogens infect any available competent host; to ‘specialist’, where pathogens repeatedly infect specific host species or families. Avian malaria ecology in the region remains largely unexplored, despite the presence of vulnerable endemic avian species. We analysed the expression of host specificity in avian haemosporidia, by applying a previously developed host specificity index to lineages isolated from wetland passerines in the Western Cape, South Africa. Parasite lineages were isolated using PCR and identified when possible using matching lineages deposited in GenBank and in MalAvi. Parasitic clades were constructed from phylogenetic trees consisting of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus lineages. Isolated lineages matched some strains of Plasmodium relictum, P. elongatum, Haemoproteus sylvae and H. lanii. Plasmodium lineages infected a wide range of hosts from several avian families in a generalist pattern of infection. Plasmodium spp. also exhibited an infection trend according to host abundance rather than host species. By contrast, Haemoproteus lineages were typically restricted to one or two host species or families, and displayed higher host fidelity than Plasmodium spp. The findings confirm that a range of host specificity traits are exhibited by avian haemosporidia in the region. The traits show the potential to not only impact infection prevalence within specific host species, but also to affect patterns of infection at the community level.

Carrion crows (Corvus corone) of southwest Germany: important hosts for haemosporidian parasites

“…The lineage Cc_Pp_P which has been isolated from both carrion crows and Eurasian Magpies was similar to the previously reported Plasmodium lineage SGS1 (e.g. [ 50 – 52 ]). The lineage Cc_P1 was identical with the previously published lineage GRW11 (e.g.…”

“…Since these lineages have already been isolated several times from different bird species in different regions, one could assume that these parasites are generalists. Okanga et al [ 50 ] stated that e.g. SGS1 may have come to Africa in migratory birds from Europe.…”

Testing epidemiological functional groups as predictors of avian haemosporidia patterns in southern Africa

“…, Okanga et al. ), very few have considered the diversity of birds included here, including waterbirds and galliformes. The overall prevalence observed in our communities (3.74% for Plasmodium and 2.72% for Haemoproteus in the samples with ≥12 individuals tested) were low compared to other studies, especially for Haemoproteus, for which a prevalence over 10% is regularly recorded (Bennett et al.…”

Peer Review #1 of "Blood parasites in Passeriformes in central Germany: prevalence and lineage diversity of Haemosporida (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon) in six common songbirds (v0.1)"

“…This general pattern of host specificity, with Haemoproteus being the most host specialized and Plasmodium being more host generalized, is supported by several studies (e.g. Ricklefs & Fallon, 2002;Waldenström et al, 2002;Križanauskienė et al, 2006;Dimitrov et al, 2010;Jenkins & Owens, 2011;Drovetski et al, 2014;Okanga et al, 2014;Mata et al, 2015;Ciloglu et al, 2016). Less studies regarding host specificity of Leucocytozoon lineages exist, therefore it is necessary to do further investigations to confirm Leucocytozoon lineages to be, as assumed, host-specific mostly at avian order level and in some cases even on species level (Forrester & Greiner, 2008;Ciloglu et al, 2016).…”