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Can avian malaria affect the reproductive success of the host?
Krausová, Simona ; Munclinger, Pavel (advisor) ; Vinkler, Michal (referee)
Malarial deseases caused by intracellular parasites of birds is very common. Even if infection doesn't lead to the death of infected individuals, they may suffer alternations of different levels of fitness, which may also consequently harm their reproductive success rates. Infected individuals, due to their poor physical condition, may lay lower quality eggs, breed less viable offspring, have reduced frequency of feeding their chicks, etc. While it may seem that malarial parasites undoubtedly negatively affect their hosts's reproduction, there are numerous studies which do no support such prediction. These differences in individual studies may be due to various testing methods used in the indicated studies. Because of various testing methods, there also may appear other possible problems which can more or less affect the detection rate of malaria parasites.
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Host specificity, diversity and distribution of avian malaria parasites in a contact zone of two nightingale species
Šíma, Michal ; Munclinger, Pavel (advisor) ; Sádlová, Jovana (referee)
Avian contact zones were suggested to act as barriers to parasite expansions. I studied haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon) of two Nightingale species which meet in a contact zone in Europe. In total 20 lineages of parasites were detected. Surprisingly, all common lineages were shared by the two host species. The parasite prevalence vary between species (Trush Nightingales were more often parasitized than Common Nightingales.) but did not vary to a large extent within zones inside species Parasitemia of the most frequent Haemoproteus LULU1 lineage assessed by Real-Time PCR method did not differ significantly between the two host species. Six out of nine hybrids of the nightingale species were parasitized. Haemosporidian lineages found in hybrids were also frequent in the parental species. In conclusion, the nightingale contact zone seems to have only little (if any) effect on the distribution of haemosporidian parasites.
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