Despite the ubiquity of disease seasonality, mechanisms behind fluctuations in seasonal diseases are still poorly understood. Avian hemosporidiosis is increasingly used as a model for ecological and evolutionary studies on dynamics, but results complex, depending focus (hosts, parasites, vectors) scale (individuals, community, populations) study. Here, we examine local diversity haemosporidian ...

Commercial quail farming is economically viable and feasible because quails are resistant tovarious diseases. But despite this reported resistance, little known about its resistance tohaemoparasites. This study evaluates the haematological changes haemoparasiticinfection of commercially raised quails. Fifty-seven adult on deep litter wererandomly selected for blood sampling in study. Two millil...

Malaria parasites (Plasmodium spp.) have plagued humans for millennia. Less well known are related parasites (Haemosporida), with diverse life cycles and dipteran vectors that infect other vertebrates. Understanding the evolution of parasite life histories, including switches between hosts and vectors, depends on knowledge of evolutionary relationships among parasite lineages. In particular, in...

The health status of goshawk chicks (Accipiter gentilis) from the nests in the vicinity of Wrocław was evaluated. The research was conducted in spring 2001. Each nest was inspected three times at different phases of the reproduction period and the protocol included: the counting of eggs in each nest, clinical examination of chicks, collecting swabs from the crop and cloaca, blood and litter sam...

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are native to Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. Magellanic penguins are highly susceptible to blood parasites such as the mosquito-borne Plasmodium spp., which have been documented causing high morbidity and mortality in zoos and rehabilitation centres. However, to date no blood parasites have been detected in wild Magellanic penguins, and ...

More than 200 species of avian Haemosporidia (genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon) have been described based primarily on morphological characters seen in blood smears. Recent molecular studies, however, suggest that such methods may mask a substantial cryptic diversity of avian haemosporidians. We surveyed the haemosporidians of birds sampled at 1 site in Israel. Parasites were ...

It has been suggested that blood parasites are a source of physiological stress for avian hosts in the wild. We report the first experimental evidence relating blood parasite infection to the physiological stress response in a wild avian population. We reduced through medication the intensity of infection by Haemoproteus majoris and the prevalence of infection by Leucocytozoon majoris in half o...