Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Relationships between nestling condition and variability in coccidian prevalence among three species of wild-nesting birds in New Zealand

Relationships between nestling condition and variability in coccidian prevalence among three... Coccidian protozoa are widespread intestinal parasites of vertebrate species. Currently, our understanding of the dynamics of host–coccidia relationships among birds remains poor beyond domestic poultry and species held in captivity. The various threats that parasites can impose have resulted in demands to monitor and quantify different parasites and incorporate their impacts on hosts into ecological models of risk assessment. Here, we estimate prevalence of coccidian infections from nestlings of three species of exotic, free-living European passerines in New Zealand ( Turdus merula , T. philomelos , Sturnus vulgaris ). We find that despite high prevalence of infection among clutches (~40%) these infections appear asymptomatic and are not related to indices of nestling condition or fledging success. We encourage additional studies to provide results on variation in parasite prevalence and pathogenicity in order to build our understanding of host dynamics. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian Journal of Zoology CSIRO Publishing

Relationships between nestling condition and variability in coccidian prevalence among three species of wild-nesting birds in New Zealand

Download PDF
4 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/csiro-publishing/relationships-between-nestling-condition-and-variability-in-coccidian-wELnClsi0W

References (32)

Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Copyright
CSIRO
ISSN
0004-959X
eISSN
1446-5698
DOI
10.1071/ZO08001
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Coccidian protozoa are widespread intestinal parasites of vertebrate species. Currently, our understanding of the dynamics of host–coccidia relationships among birds remains poor beyond domestic poultry and species held in captivity. The various threats that parasites can impose have resulted in demands to monitor and quantify different parasites and incorporate their impacts on hosts into ecological models of risk assessment. Here, we estimate prevalence of coccidian infections from nestlings of three species of exotic, free-living European passerines in New Zealand ( Turdus merula , T. philomelos , Sturnus vulgaris ). We find that despite high prevalence of infection among clutches (~40%) these infections appear asymptomatic and are not related to indices of nestling condition or fledging success. We encourage additional studies to provide results on variation in parasite prevalence and pathogenicity in order to build our understanding of host dynamics.

Journal

Australian Journal of Zoology – CSIRO Publishing

Published: Sep 9, 2008

There are no references for this article.