High prevalence of haemosporidian parasites in Eurasian jays

Abstract

Avian haemosporidians are vector-borne parasites, infecting a great variety of birds. The order Passeriformes has the highest average infection probability; nevertheless, some common species of Passeriformes have been rather poorly studied. We investigated haemosporidians in one such species, the Eurasian jay Garrulus glandarius (Corvidae), from a forest population in Hesse, Central Germany. All individuals were infected with at least one haemosporidian genus (overall prevalence: 100%). The most common infection pattern was a mixed Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon infection, whereas no Plasmodium infection was detected. Results on lineage diversity indicate a rather pronounced host-specificity of Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon lineages infecting birds of the family Corvidae.

Keywords: Garrulus glandarius; Avian malaria-like pathogens; Blood parasites; Corvidae; Disease ecology.

Fig. 1

Median-joining network of mitochondrial cytochrome b lineages (476 bp, n = 60 sequences) of haemosporidian parasites found in Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius. Circle size is proportional to the lineage frequency. Lineage names are noted at the associated circles together with one exemplary GenBank association number in parentheses. One hatch mark represents one mutation. Sample origins are represented by different colours, ‘MalAvi’ referring to sequences from other studies deposited in the MalAvi database (MalAvi 2023). Morphospecies names for GAGLA07 (H. homopicae) and TURDUS2 (H. minutus) are not provided within the figure