The blood parasite Leucocytozoon simondi is often associated with heavy mortality of ducks and geese, especially domestic ones, in North America. In contrast, in a previous study we found no mortality from L. simondi in our wild stock of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and American black duck (Anas rubripes) ducklings. However, because parasites can slow growth, which could extend the interval dur...

Infection patterns of parasites, including their prevalence, diversity and host specificity, can be impacted by many biological environmental factors, but no study has focused on the circadian rhythms vertebrate hosts, which may affect susceptibilities encounter rates between hosts vectors further shape host-parasite associations. In this study, we avian haemosporidians, a classical model in st...

The simultaneous occurrence of male and female gametocytes inside a single host blood cell has been suggested to enhance apicomplexan transmission [ double gametocyte infection (DGI) hypothesis ]. We did a bibliographic search and a direct screen of blood smears from wild birds and reptiles to answer, for the first time, how common are these infections in the wild. Taking these two approaches t...

Culicoides is an important human and animal pest with great economic significance and a prime vector for various viruses like virus, virus, epizootic haemorrhagic disease, Akabane, Aino, Chuzan, and bovine ephemeral fever virus,Vesicularstomatitisvirus,EquineEncephalitisVirus (EEV),SchmallenbergVirus,protozoalike spp. and and Hepatocystis, avian Trypanosomes, Plasmodium in lizard and bird malar...