STREBY, H. M.; Ohio University: Avian hematozoa of nesting neotropical migrants: patterns related to forestry techniques

Avian hematozoa have been traditionally viewed as nonpathogenic in the wild. However, recent studies have started to uncover the sometimes small, sometimes detrimental effects of parasites on the physiological condition of their avian hosts. Rates of parasitism can vary among taxa as well as within species between geographic locations. In order to see if parasitism rates vary on a local scale as a result of human activities, I sampled 205 adult birds from a population of nesting neotropical migrants in adjacent forest plots that have undergone different forestry techniques. Birds were captured in four plots that received systematic thinning, prescribed burning, both thinning and burning, or no treatment (control). Parasites were detected in 26.5% of all birds sampled (13% Haemoproteus, 6% Leukocytozoon, 1.5% Plasmodium, 1.5% microfilariae, 2.5% Haemoproteus and Leukocytozoon, and 2% Haemoproteus and Plasmodium). Understory and canopy nesting species were much more heavily parasitized (58%) than ground and shrub nesting species (12%) regardless of treatment. There were also differences in the rates of parasitism among treatments. Three of the parasite genera were treatment-specific, with Leukocytozoon found mainly in the control and burn treatments, while Plasmodium and microfilariae were mainly in the thin and thin-and-burn treatments.