Patterns of avian haemosporidian infections vary with time, but not habitat, in a fragmented Neotropical landscape

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 10; p. e0206493
• Main Authors: Rivero de Aguilar, Juan, Castillo, Fernando, Moreno, Andrea, Peñafiel, Nicolás, Browne, Luke, Walter, Scott T, Karubian, Jordan, Bonaccorso, Elisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 31.10.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animals; Biology and Life Sciences; Bird Diseases - epidemiology; Birds; Dry season; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Ecosystem; Ecuador; Forests; Fragmentation; Habitat loss; Habitats; Haemosporida; Infections; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mosquitoes; Parasites; Plasmodium; Protozoan Infections, Animal - epidemiology; Rainy season; Research and Analysis Methods; Ecuador; Louisiana; Chile; United States > US; Texas
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206493

Habitat loss has the potential to alter vertebrate host populations and their interactions with parasites. Theory predicts a decrease in parasite diversity due to the loss of hosts in such contexts. However, habitat loss could also increase parasite infections as a result of the arrival of new parasites or by decreasing host immune defenses. We investigated the effect of habitat loss and other habitat characteristics on avian haemosporidian infections in a community of birds within a fragmented landscape in northwest Ecuador. We estimated Plasmodium and Haemoproteus parasite infections in 504 individual birds belonging to 8 families and 18 species. We found differences in infection status among bird species, but no relationship between forest fragment characteristics and infection status was observed. We also found a temporal effect, with birds at the end of the five-month study (which ran from the end of the rainy season thru the dry season), being less infected by Plasmodium parasites than individuals sampled at the beginning. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between forest area and Culicoides abundance. Taken as a whole, these findings indicate little effect of fragment characteristics per se on infection, although additional sampling or higher infection rates would have offered more power to detect potential relationships.