Contrasting the seasonal and elevational prevalence of generalist avian haemosporidia in co-occurring host species.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the ecology and evolution of parasites is contingent on identifying the selection pressures they face across their infection landscape. Such a task is made challenging by the fact that these pressures will likely vary across time and space, as a result of seasonal and geographical differences in host susceptibility or transmission opportunities. Avian haemosporidian blood parasites are capable of infecting multiple co-occurring hosts within their ranges, yet whether their distribution across time and space varies similarly in their different host species remains unclear. Here, we applied a new PCR method to detect avian haemosporidia (genera Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon, and Plasmodium) and to determine parasite prevalence in two closely related and co-occurring

SUBMITTER: Lynton-Jenkins JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319113 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature