Blood Parasites in Birds From the Lowlands of Northern Colombia

92
A. LODOÑO ET AL.
modium (60% of all infections) was the most
common protozoa in domesticated birds,
which makes the availability of vectors a
poor explanation of the phenomena, at
least it were species of mosquito resistant to
that kind of insecticide. We claim that biologic
factors (immunology, ecology, behavior,
to mention something) of Neotropical
birds more than sampling methods are accounting
for the observed prevalence of
blood parasites in the Neotropics.
Nevertheless, we cannot conclude unerringly
that there is a low frequency of
haematozoa in the lowlands of northern
Colombia. We have examined different
groups of birds with different life histories
at different seasons and with few samples
per bird species, which limits our possibilities
to do comparisons, a disadvantage of
our sampling method. Opportunistic sampling
has advantages only in unexplored
areas where information of both, biodiversity
of birds and blood parasites is unknown
and also leaves a wider possibility
to find new hosts of parasites. Groupdirected
studies, on the other hand, have
more advantages to establish prevalence.
For example the families Tyrannidae, Cotingidae
and Furnariidae (sensu Remsen et
al. 2004) are almost never infected in other
studies (like Bennett et al. 1991, Young et al.
1993), but had more infected species in our
work than in theirs (Table 1), and moreover
these families had an increased frequency
of parasites in family focused studies as
Matta et al. (2004). We suggest that without
statistically designed studies with broad
host samples from different seasons and at
the same localities, it is difficult to draw
conclusions regarding the level of prevalence
as such. It is better to carry out detailed
examinations of specific groups of
birds (Tella et al. 1999, Matta et al. 2004).
New analyses and additional data, including
biology of both vertebrate and invertebrate
host, life cycles, physiology and genetic
backgrounds are needed to resolve
many questions about bird-parasite interactions.
Although the parasites have not been
identified at the level of species, this short
exploration is the first from this part of Colombia,
and adds to our knowledge for
the bird-parasite relationships in South
America. Explorations with more refined
methods are required, because in 52 years
only eight studies (including ours), and
about 440 total species (c. 22% of the Colombian
avifauna) of birds have been examined.
Additional methods for haematozoa
identification are also necessary to
understand the ecological and evolutionary
relationships between hosts, parasites and
vectors occurring in the Neotropics.
Acknowledgments.—We are indebted to
Corantioquia and Corpourabá (entities that
regulate the use of regional natural resources)
for permission to catch birds in
their ecological jurisdiction, and to Servicio
de Erradicación de Malaria in Turbo and
Zaragoza for introducing us to the forests.
We thank Gabriel J. Colorado, Juan F. Díaz
and Ana M. Castaño for their collaboration
during field work. Lastly to Sylvia M. Fallon
and John T. Klicka for reviewing the
manuscript, and Luciane Willcox for providing
information about Brazilian blood
parasite studies.
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