Blood Parasites in Birds From the Lowlands of Northern Colombia

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90 A. LODOÑO ET AL. TABLE 1. Blood parasites present in domesticated and wild birds in northwest Colombia. Birds Parasite genus Family and species Examined Infected Plasmodium Haemoproteus Leucocytozoon Microfilariae ANATIDAE Cairina moschata 8 ab 3 2 b 1 a PHASIANIDAE Gallus gallus 74 ab 7 7 ab COLUMBIDAE Columbina talpacoti 1 a 1 1 a FURNARIIDAE Automolus ochrolaemus 4 b 1 1 be Sclerurus mexicanus 1 b 1 1 b 1 be THAMNOPHILIDAE Formicivora grisea f 11 a 1 1 ae COTINGIDAE Pachyramphus cinnamomeus 1 a 1 1 a Pachyramphus rufus 1 a 1 1 a Pachyramphus polychopterus 1 a 1 1 a TYRANNIDAE Myiodynastes maculatus 1 a 1 1 a Mionectes oleagineus 16 ab 1 1 ae VIREONIDAE Vireo olivaceus 1 a 1 1 a TROGLODYTIDAE Compylorhynchus griseus 1 a 1 1 ae EMBERIZIDAE Arremonops conirostris 2 a 1 1 a COEREBIDAE Coereba flaveola 4 ab 4 2 b 2 a THRAUPIDAE Ramphocelus dimidiatus 12 ab 2 2 a Uninfected unlisted* 163 TOTAL 302 28 17 8 1 3 % Infected 9.3 5.6 2.6 0.3 1.0 a From Turbo. b From Zaragoza. e New record of host for the respective parasite. f Species examined for haematozoa for the first time. † Refers to boreal migratory birds. *Uninfected species (the number of birds is in parenthesis, underlined species correspond to the domesticated ones): Meleagridae: Meleagris gallopavo a (13); Numididae: Numida meleagirs a (1); Columbidae: Columba livia a (2), Leptotila verreauxi a (1); Cuculidae: Crotophaga ani a (1); Trochilidae: Glaucis hirsutus a (3), Phaetornis longirostris ab (9), Phaetornis anthophilus b (1), Heliothryx barroti b (1); Momotidae: Momotus momota a (1); Galbulidae: Galbula ruficauda a (1); Ramphastidae: Pteroglossus torquatus b (1); Picidae: Colaptes punctigula a (1), Dryocopus lineatus a (1); Dendrocolaptidae: Xyphorhyncus picus a (2), Xyphorhyncus guttatus a (1), Lepidocolaptes souleyetii a (1), Glyphorhynchus spirurus b (2), Dendrocolaptes certhia b (1), Dendrocincla fuliginosa b (2); Furnariidae: Xenops minutus ab (2); Thamnophilidae: Gymnopitys leucaspis ba (2); Sakesphorus canadensis bf (1), Myrmotherula fulviventris bf (1), Thamnophilus doliatus a (2), Thamnophilus nigriceps a (1), Cercomacra tyrannina a (1); Pipridae: Manacus vitellinus ab (42), Pipra erythrocephala ab (8), Pipra coronata b (2); Cotingidae: Schiffornis turdina b (2); Tyrannidae: Leptopogon amaurocephalus a (1), Poecilotriccus sylvia a (5), Attila spadiceus a (2), Empidonax sp. a† (1), Terenotricus erithrurus b (2), Myiodinastes chrysocephalus bf (1), Myiozetetes cayanensis ab (6), Elaneia frantzii a ? (1), Empidonax traillii ab† (1), Myiarchus tuberculifer a (1); Troglodytidae: Thryothorus fasciatoventris a (1), Thryothorus leucotis a (1), Troglodytes aedon a (1), Microcerculus marginatus ab (3); Emberizidae: Oryzoborus crassirostris b (1), Oryzoborus angolensis ab (7), Volatinia jacarina a (4); Cardinalidae: Cyanocompsa cyanoides ab (2), Saltator coerulescens b (2), Saltator maximus a (1); Parulidae: Dendroica petechia a† (1), Dendroica castanea a† (1), Vermivora peregrina a† (1), Oporornis philadelphia a† (1), Basileuterus fulvicauda a (1), Seirus novoeborascensis a† (1); Thraupidae: Mitrospingus cassini a (1), Thraupis episcopus a (2).
BLOOD PARASITES OF COLOMBIAN BIRDS 91 et al. 1978, Rodriguez & Matta 2001). It was also lower than prevalence in neighboring regions like Caribbean islands and Panama (ca 30%, p < 0.0001, Fallon et al. 2004 and 18%, p = 0.0008, Sousa and Herman 1982, respectively). The total prevalence of haematozoa, however, was not different from other studies carried out in Colombia [Bennett and Borrero (1976: 7.1%), Rodriguez and Matta (2001:15.9%), Valkiunas et al. (2003: 7.8%)], and other Neotropical countries [Woodworth-Lynas and Bennett (1989: 8%), Young et al. (1993: 11%)]. Many reasons have been proposed to explain the low frequency of blood parasites in Neotropical birds: the scarcity of vectors (Bennett and Borrero 1976, White et al. 1978, Young et al. 1993), under-estimation of the infections by failure in the methods to detection of parasitized birds (Bennett et al. 1991, Fallon et al. 2003a) and the evolutionary history of Neotropical birds (Ricklefs 1992, Tella et al. 1999). However parasitic relationships vary widely according to host species or the geographical regions, and therefore careful analyses which reflect these dynamics are needed (Fallon et al. 2003b). It is important to consider the effect of the diversity of host species and sampling strategy on the prevalence. In 77% of the examined species only one or two individuals were captured, as a result of the opportunistic sampling. Although a high diversity would dilute the prevalence occurring in susceptible species by disproportion of non-susceptible species, it was ruled out because the sample size of the dominant species supports the reports of low prevalence of blood parasites in Neotropical birds. Three species (Gallus gallus, Manacus vitellinus and Mionectes oleaginea) conform 44% of the sample, which mean they are overrepresented. Two of these species are known as susceptible to haematozoa (G. gallus and M. vitellinus) (White et al. 1978, Bishop and Bennett 1992), but their specific prevalence wasn’t as high as in other parts of the world, and didn’t generate an augment in the general prevalence. Probably the diversity allowed the equilibrium between non-susceptible and overrepresented susceptible species. The prevalence by genera was affected by the sample size of host species. In comparisons of prevalence separating wild from domesticated birds the total prevalence of haematozoa in wilds was similar to the Neotropics (using information filtrated from White et al. 1978), but some differences were observed at the level of genera. In the case of infections by Plasmodium spp., G. gallus had a highest percentage of the infections which is the source of augmented frequency of this genus in our sample of domesticated birds. This situation put Plasmodium spp. as the most frequent parasite in our overall sample, instead of Haemoproteus spp., as had been observed in other studies reported in Colombia (Rodriguez and Matta 2001, Valkiunas et al. 2003). A handful of reasons besides the biology of Neotropical birds could explain the percentage of prevalence found in this work. A direct relationship between high parasite prevalence and wet season, breeding period and hormonal conditions has been reported (e.g. Young et al. 1993 and Deviche et al. 2001 as examples). The low prevalence of haematozoa in our sample of wild birds may be a mixture of factors: one is that most birds (67%) were caught during the dry season, in the months of February and early May, before the proliferation of mosquitoes; the second is that only 18% of the birds were breeding, therefore there were fewer individuals susceptible to vector biting. A good explanation for the low parasite presence in domesticated birds is difficult due to many factors involved in their human habitat. A model proposing a relationship between endemic zones for human malaria and prevalence of avian malaria was proposed by Gabaldon and Ulloa (1980), in which is established that the bioclimatic conditions of this zones facilitate the infection of several families of birds, especially marsh birds. From that view, the low prevalence could come from a low number of mosquitoes in the zones studied as a result of ongoing control programs. Since Turbo (Urabá) and Zaragoza (Nechí) are endemic zones for human malaria, and dengue fever is also frequent, spraying of the surrounding forest is common to control several mosquito species. Even so, Plas-
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Blood Parasites in Birds From the Lowlands of Northern Colombia

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