Meeting Abstract
Haemoparasites are prevalent among free-living birds, but the intensity of infection varies greatly and is known to be highly context-dependent. Further, the consequences for avian hosts living with common parasites are only well understood for domestic species and for a few free-living species. We assessed parasite prevalence in over 200 birds of prey admitted to the Illinois Raptor Center in 2014 and determined leukocyte differentials as well as a number of other immunological and physiological metrics to assess host condition. As expected, eosinophilia was common in individuals with heavy haemoparasite loads; however, our findings revealed additional correlations between parasite prevalence and intensity and immune function that offer new insights into the role of life history stage, season, and ontogeny on both susceptibility to parasitism and the impact of parasitism on raptor hosts.
