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An international team, including Dr Konstans Wells, who heads the Biodiversity and Health Ecology research group at Swansea University, conducted research to understand where and why the disease has spread so rapidly and so widely.
“Avian malaria now affects between 13 and 14% – on average – of all wild birds in the world,” said Dr Wells.
“It is caused by a group of blood parasites – known as hemosporid parasites – and, like human malaria, is transmitted by blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes.
“It can’t harm humans, but it’s known to have significant impacts on bird populations.
“For example, when avian malaria was introduced to Hawaii in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was a major cause of extinction for approximately one-third of the 55 known species of Hawaiian lianas. .
“We have discovered that there are hot spots transmitting these parasites around the world.”
Co-author Dr Alan Fecchio of the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Brazil said: “Birds are most often infected with these parasites in the Saharo-Arab region, but local hotspots with high rates of Surprisingly high infection can be Australia, depending on the different variants of the parasite.
“In Europe, some of these blood parasites cause high infection rates in our songbirds, including the common blackbird (Turdus merula) and the great tit (Parus ater).”
The research team has compiled and analyzed what is possibly the largest data set on infections of wild birds with avian malaria parasites to date, with more than 53,000 wild birds examined.
They combined infection data with remote sensing environmental data, such as climatic or forest conditions, and information about bird life history, such as body size and migration patterns, into models. computer tools to identify the factors that best describe the risk of infection with avian malaria parasites.
Co-author Dr Nicholas Clark of the University of Queensland in Australia said that predicting the conditions facilitating infection of wild birds with avian malaria is crucial to understanding the risks of infectious diseases.
“Because each bird species is unique in its ecological niche and is exposed to disease-carrying insects differently during breeding and migration, the risks of infection are not the same for different bird species.
“The conditions that allow infection in different parts of the world depend entirely on the context.
“For example, birds migrating long distances were more likely to be infected on some continents but less likely to be infected on others.”
Dr Wells concluded: “There is no easy answer with so many factors at play, but we will continue our research to find out how best to protect the world’s bird species from this deadly disease and better understand the fallout of a harmful parasite from one species to another.
Reference
Fecchio A, Clark NJ, Bell JA, et al. The global drivers of avian hemosporidia infections vary across zoogeographic regions. Glob Ecol Biogeog. doi: 10.1111 / born.13390
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