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Co-infection with Leucocytozoon and Other Haemosporidian Parasites Increases with Latitude and Altitude in New World Bird Communities

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Abstract

Establishing how environmental gradients and host ecology drive spatial variation in infection rates and diversity of pathogenic organisms is one of the central goals in disease ecology. Here, we identified the predictors of concomitant infection and lineage richness of blood parasites in New Word bird communities. Our multi-level Bayesian models revealed that higher latitudes and elevations played a determinant role in increasing the probability of a bird being co-infected with Leucocytozoon and other haemosporidian parasites. The heterogeneity in both single and co-infection rates was similarly driven by host attributes and temperature, with higher probabilities of infection in heavier migratory host species and at cooler localities. Latitude, elevation, host body mass, migratory behavior, and climate were also predictors of Leucocytozoon lineage richness across the New World avian communities, with decreasing parasite richness at higher elevations, rainy and warmer localities, and in heavier and resident host species. Increased parasite richness was found farther from the equator, confirming a reverse Latitudinal Diversity Gradient pattern for this parasite group. The increased rates of Leucocytozoon co-infection and lineage richness with increased latitude are in opposition with the pervasive assumption that pathogen infection rates and diversity are higher in tropical host communities.

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Data Availability

The bird infection data used in this study are available as Supporting Information Table S1. All parasite sequences are deposited in GenBank, and accession numbers can be found in the Supporting Information Table S1.

Data Accessibility

The raw dataset is available in the Supporting Information. All unpublished DNA sequences will be available in Genbank and MalAvi.

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Acknowledgements

We thank numerous ornithologists and field assistants for their help with sampling birds. We also thank all collaborators who contributed to previously published data as well as the authors that made their data publicly available. We are in debt to the governmental agencies from Brazil and the USA for issuing all permits necessary for collection of new blood samples. Field collection and reagents for molecular analyses were funded in part by National Science Foundation grants DEB-1503804 to JDW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica (CIEMEP), CONICET - Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Esquel, Chubut, Argentina

    Alan Fecchio

  2. Department of Ornithology, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Alan Fecchio, Janice H. Dispoto & Jason D. Weckstein

  3. Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

    Jeffrey A. Bell

  4. Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Emily J. Williams

  5. Denali National Park and Preserve, Denali Park, AK, USA

    Emily J. Williams

  6. Department of Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jason D. Weckstein

  7. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Daniela de Angeli Dutra

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  1. Alan Fecchio
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  2. Jeffrey A. Bell
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Contributions

AF and DAD conceived the idea, designed the research, and wrote the manuscript. DAD ran the analyses. EJW, JDW, and JHD generated new data. JAB curated the data. All authors contributed critically to the manuscript drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Alan Fecchio.

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Fecchio, A., Bell, J.A., Williams, E.J. et al. Co-infection with Leucocytozoon and Other Haemosporidian Parasites Increases with Latitude and Altitude in New World Bird Communities. Microb Ecol 86, 2838–2846 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02283-x

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