ArticleBMC ecology2013
Explaining variance of avian malaria infection in the wild: the importance of host density, habitat, individual life-history and oxidative stress.
Article in BMC ecology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contrasting haemosporidian infections in two ecologically distinct wading birds from breeding colonies in the southeastern United States.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2026Article
- Avian malaria and invasion success: Contrasting infection patterns in two introduced Eurasian sparrows in North America (International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2026Article
- Article
- Hemoparasites in Wild Birds: A Systematic Review of Their Ecology and Clinical Implications.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Life at new extremes: Integrating stress physiology and the bio-exposome in the Anthropocene.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Species-specific physiological status in seabirds: insights from integrating oxidative stress measurements and biologging.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Weak association of Usutu virus and haemosporidian infection in birds collected in Germany.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Article
- Antimalarial Efficacy of Ethanol Extract of Bridelia micrantha Stem Bark against Plasmodium berghei-Infected Mice.Journal of parasitology research · 2024Article
- Higher body condition with infection byPeerJ · 2024Article
- Dietary fatty acids modulate oxidative stress response to air pollution but not to infection.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Physiological impacts of chronic and experimental Plasmodium infection on breeding-condition male songbirds.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Infection by a helminth parasite is associated with changes in DNA methylation in the house sparrow.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Avian haemosporidian (Haemosporida: Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in the department of Arauca, Colombian Orinoquia region.Parasitology research · 2022Article
- The drivers of avian-haemosporidian prevalence in tropical lowland forests of New Guinea in three dimensions.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- A meta-analysis of impacts of immune response and infection on oxidative status in vertebrates.Conservation physiology · 2022Article
- The prevalence of Leucocytozoon spp. in nestlings of three wild raptor species including implications on haematological and blood chemistry values.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2021Article
- Beyond illness: Variation in haemosporidian load explains differences in vocal performance in a songbird.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Re-emphasizing mechanism in the community ecology of disease.Functional ecology · 2021Article
- Latitudinal gradients of haemosporidian parasites: Prevalence, diversity and drivers of infection in the Thorn-tailed Rayadito (International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2020Article
- Physiological and morphological correlates of blood parasite infection in urban and non-urban house sparrow populations.PloS one · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAvian malaria (Plasmodium sp.) is globally widespread, but considerable variation exists in infection (presence/absence) patterns at small spatial scales. This variation can be driven by variation in ecology, demography, and phenotypic characters, in particular those that influence the host's resistance. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the host's initial immune responses to combat parasitic invasion. However, long-term ROS exposure can harm the host and the redox response therefore needs to be adjusted according to infection stage and host phenotype. Here we use experimental and correlational approaches to assess the relative importance of host density, habitat composition, individual level variation and redox physiology for Plasmodium infection in a wild population of great tits, Parus major.
resultsWe found that 36% of the great tit population was infected with Plasmodium (22% P. relictum and 15% P. circumflexum prevalence) and that patterns of infection were Plasmodium species-specific. First, the infection of P. circumflexum was significantly higher in areas with experimental increased host density, whereas variation in P. relictum infection was mainly attributed to age, sex and reproduction. Second, great tit antioxidant responses - total and oxidizied glutathione - showed age- , sex- and Plasmodium species-specific patterns between infected and uninfected individuals, but reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) showed only a weak explanatory power for patterns of P. relictum infection. Instead ROM significantly increased with Plasmodium parasitaemia.
conclusionsThese results identify some key factors that influence Plasmodium infection in wild birds, and provide a potential explanation for the underlying physiological basis of recently documented negative effects of chronic avian malaria on survival and reproductive success.
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