Meeting Abstract

87.4  Friday, Jan. 7  Do Flies Suffer Fitness Consequences From Vectoring Blood Parasites: Experiments with Pseudolynchia canariensis and Haemoproteus columbae WAITE, JESSICA L*; HENRY, AUTUMN R; CLAYTON, DALE H; University of Utah; University of Utah; University of Utah Jessi.Waite@gmail.com

Frequently, blood-feeding vectors are parasitized by the very parasites they carry from host to host. While the cost of malaria parasitism is fairly well studied in vertebrate hosts, whether the vector incurs a fitness cost is debated. We experimentally tested whether vectors feeding on malaria-infected host blood incurred a fitness cost using a natural vector-parasite association under semi-natural captive conditions. We infected wild-caught Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) with the malaria parasite Haemoproteus columbae and injected an equivalent number of pigeons with a control solution. Following infection of the peripheral host blood, we added populations of hippoboscid flies (Pseudolynchia canariensis) to each individually housed host. We monitored fly survival and reproduction over the course of 6 weeks. We found no difference in male fly survival between treatments; however, there was a significant interaction of treatment over time on female fly survival such that feeding on infected blood decreased survival. We also found that populations of flies feeding on malaria-infected hosts produced significantly fewer offspring over their lifetime compared to controls. Thus we show that that blood-feeding vectors do incur fitness costs from the parasites they transfer between hosts in a natural system. Vectors play a critical role in the transmission of many parasites and pathogens. As such, future research needs to consider potential fitness consequences to the vector during pathogen transmission to more accurately assess transmission dynamics.