ArticleOecologia2015
Nest-dwelling ectoparasites reduce antioxidant defences in females and nestlings of a passerine: a field experiment.
Article in Oecologia, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impairment of Body Condition Transiently Increases Oxidative Stress: A Dietary Restriction Experiment in Partridges.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2025Article
- Energetics and Oxidative Status: Seasonal Variation in Blood Oxidative Stress Metrics in Four Species of Small Birds from a Cold Winter Climate.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Mate choice is affected by parasite infestation rate of the choosing individual as well as of potential mating partners.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Experimental ectoparasite removal has a sex-specific effect on nestling telomere length.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- A meta-analysis of impacts of immune response and infection on oxidative status in vertebrates.Conservation physiology · 2022Article
- Reduced ectoparasite load, body mass and blood haemolysis in Eurasian kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) along an urban-rural gradient.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2021Article
- Antioxidant capacity is repeatable across years but does not consistently correlate with a marker of peroxidation in a free-living passerine bird.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2019Article
- Physiological condition of nestling great titsConservation physiology · 2018Article
- A structural colour ornament correlates positively with parasite load and body condition in an insular lizard species.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ectoparasites may imply a cost in terms of oxidative stress provoked by inflammatory responses in hosts. Ectoparasites may also result in costs for nestlings and brooding females because of the direct loss of nutrients and reduced metabolic capacity resulting from parasite feeding activities. These responses may involve the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that may induce oxidative damage in host tissues. Our goal was to examine the effect of ectoparasites in terms of oxidative stress for nestlings and adult females in a population of pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca. We manipulated the entire nest ectoparasite community by reducing ectoparasite loads in some nests through a heating treatment and compared them with a control group of nests with natural loads. A marker of total antioxidant capacity (TAS) in plasma and total levels of glutathione (tGSH) in red blood cells as well as a marker of oxidative damage in plasma lipids (malondialdehyde; MDA) were assessed simultaneously. Levels of tGSH were higher in heat-treated nests than in controls for both females and nestlings. Higher TAS values were observed in females from heat-treated nests. In nestlings there was a negative correlation between TAS and MDA. Our study supports the hypothesis that ectoparasites expose cavity-nesting birds to an oxidative challenge. This could be paid for in the long term, ultimately compromising individual fitness.
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