Diverse wild bird host range of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in eastern North America.

ABSTRACT: Emerging infectious diseases often result from pathogens jumping to novel hosts. Identifying possibilities and constraints on host transfer is therefore an important facet of research in disease ecology. Host transfers can be studied for the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum, predominantly a pathogen of poultry until its 1994 appearance and subsequent epidemic spread in a wild songbird, the house finch Haemorhous mexicanus and some other wild birds. We screened a broad range of potential host species for evidence of infection by M. gallisepticum in order to answer 3 questions: (1) is there a host phylogenetic constraint on the likelihood of host infection (house finches compared to other bird species); (2) does opportunity for close proximity (visiting bird feeders) increase the likelihoo

SUBMITTER: Dhondt AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4111589 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature