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Blood parasitaemia in a high latitude flexible breeder, the white-winged crossbill,Loxia leucoptera: contribution of seasonal relapse versus new inoculations
- Source :
- Parasitology. 137:261-273
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2009.
-
Abstract
- SUMMARYWe measured seasonal changes in the prevalence of haematozoa (Leucocytozoon fringillinarum, Haemoproteus fringillae, andTrypanosoma avium) in free-ranging White-winged Crossbills,Loxia leucoptera, over 1·5 year in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. This prevalence was low during early winter.L. fringillinarumprevalence increased in late winter/early spring, in the absence of vectors, suggesting relapse of latent infection. By contrast, the prevalence ofT. aviumandH. fringillaedid not increase until mid-spring, coincident with the emergence of putative vectors and suggestive of new inoculations. The winter breeding period was not associated with lower body condition or elevated blood heterophil/lymphocyte ratios than the summer post-breeding period. Thus, birds unlikely perceived their breeding effort as particularly stressful. Adult males in May and June had low plasma testosterone and their blood prevalence ofL. fringillinarum, but not other haemoparasites, was higher than in adult females. This difference may have resulted from sex differences in behaviour and/or plumage colouration – bright red in males, dull green/yellow in females. Species in which reproduction and vector abundance are seasonally dissociated may constitute important models for investigating the respective contribution of reproductive hormones, breeding effort, and vector abundance to patent and latent hemoparasitic infections and to new inoculations.
- Subjects :
- Male
Trypanosoma
Leucocytozoon
media_common.quotation_subject
Prevalence
Zoology
Breeding
Biology
Parasitemia
Trypanosomiasis
Animals
Testosterone
Passeriformes
Protozoan Infections, Animal
media_common
Leucoptera
Sex Characteristics
Bird Diseases
Ecology
Reproduction
Haematozoa
Haemosporida
biology.organism_classification
Sexual dimorphism
Infectious Diseases
Plumage
Female
Animal Science and Zoology
Parasitology
Haemoproteus
Seasons
Alaska
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14698161 and 00311820
- Volume :
- 137
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Parasitology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6b94df50de3bd68a9656213a5666c868