Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T00:11:18.033Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Haemosporidian parasites missed the boat during the introduction of common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) in Iberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2018

Ricardo J. Lopes Open the ORCID record for Ricardo J. Lopes [Opens in a new window] ,
Joana Correia ,
Helena Batalha  and
Gonçalo C. Cardoso
Ricardo J. Lopes*
Affiliation:
CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
Joana Correia
Affiliation:
CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
Helena Batalha
Affiliation:
CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ Norwich, UK
Gonçalo C. Cardoso
Affiliation:
CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
*
Author for correspondence: Ricardo J. Lopes, E-mail: riclopes@me.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Exotic species can experience fast expansion in new environments, especially if they left their pathogens behind (Enemy Release hypothesis) or brought novel pathogens to the native competitors (Novel Weapon hypothesis). Common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) are native to sub-Saharan Africa and invaded west Iberia since the 1960s. Past haemosporidian parasite surveys at four locations in Portugal showed that waxbills can be infected with parasites, though with very low prevalence. However, it is not known if this pattern generalizes across their distribution range, or if there are geographic differences in parasite prevalence. It is also not discussed if this is a case of Enemy Release, as opposed to waxbills being also little parasitized in their native range. We screened 617 waxbills in 23 sites in Portugal and detected nine parasite lineages, most of them only known to the Palearctic. Only ten individuals were parasitized, and there was no significant geographical pattern on the prevalence. Overall, this population shows very low prevalence of haemosporidians (1.6% prevalence), which contrasts with significantly higher prevalence in native grounds, as compiled from the literature. These data support Enemy Release as the most likely hypothesis, which may have been important for their success as an exotic species.

Keywords

Enemy release hypothesisEstrilda astrildexotic specieshaemosporidian parasitesIberia
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 145 , Issue 11 , September 2018 , pp. 1493 - 1498
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bensch, S, Hellgren, O and Pérez-Tris, J (2009) Malavi: a public database of malaria parasites and related haemosporidians in avian hosts based on mitochondrial cytochrome b lineages. Molecular Ecology Resources 9, 1353–1358.Google Scholar
Callaway, RM and Ridenour, WM (2004) Novel weapons: invasive success and the evolution of increased competitive ability. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2, 436–443.Google Scholar
Cardoso, GC and Reino, L (in press) Ecologically benign invasions: the invasion and adaptation of common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) in iberia. In Queiroz, AI and Pooley, S (eds). Histories of Bioinvasions in Mediterranean-Type Regions. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. xxx–xxx.Google Scholar
Carvalho, C, Leitão, A, Funghi, C, Batalha, H, Reis, S, Mota, P, Lopes, R and Cardoso, G (2013) Personality traits are related to ecology across a biological invasion. Behavioral Ecology 24, 1081–1091.Google Scholar
Clark, NJ, Clegg, SM and Lima, MR (2014) A review of global diversity in avian haemosporidians (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus: Haemosporida): new insights from molecular data. International Journal for Parasitology 44, 329–338.Google Scholar
Batalha, HR, Ramos, JA and Cardoso, GC (2013) A successful avian invasion occupies a marginal ecological niche. Acta Oecologica 49 92–98.Google Scholar
Equipa Atlas (2008) Atlas das Aves Nidificantes em Portugal (1999–2005). Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e da Biodiversidade, Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, Parque Natural da Madeira e Secretaria Regional do. Ambiente e do Mar. Assírio & Alvim, Lisboa.Google Scholar
Falk-Petersen, J, BøhnOdd, T and Sandlund, T (2006) On the numerous concepts in invasion biology. Biological Invasions 8, 1409–1424.Google Scholar
Gómez-Rubio, V, Ferrándiz-Ferragud, J and Lopez-Quílez, A (2005) Detecting clusters of disease with R. Journal of Geographical Systems 7, 189–206.Google Scholar
Hatcher, MJ and Dunn, AM (2011) Parasites in Ecological Communities: From Interactions to Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hellgren, O, Waldenstrom, J and Bensch, S (2004) A new PCR assay for simultaneous studies of Leucocytozoon, Plasmodium, and Haemoproteus from avian blood. The Journal of Parasitology 90, 797–802.Google Scholar
Hernandes, FA and OConnor, BM (2017) Out of Africa: the mite community (Arachnida: Acariformes) of the common waxbill, Estrilda astrild (Linnaeus, 1758) (Passeriformes: Estrildidae) in Brazil. Parasites & Vectors 10, 299. doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2230-5Google Scholar
Lafferty, K, Torchin, M and Kuris, A (2010) The geography of host and parasite invasions. In Morand, S. and Krasnov, B (eds). The Biogeography of Host–Parasite Interactions. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 191–204.Google Scholar
Martí, R. and Del Moral, J. C. (eds.) (2003). Atlas de las Aves Reproductoras de España. Madrid: Dirección General de Conservación de la Naturaleza – Sociedad Española de Ornitología.Google Scholar
Martinsen, ES, Perkins, SL and Schall, JJ (2008) A three-genome phylogeny of malaria parasites (Plasmodium and closely related genera): evolution of life-history traits and host switches. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47, 261–273.Google Scholar
Mendes, L, Piersma, T, Lecoq, M, Spaans, B and Ricklefs, RE (2005) Disease-limited distributions? Contrasts in the prevalence of avian malaria in shorebird species using marine and freshwater habitats. Oikos 109, 396–404.Google Scholar
NCBI Resource Coordinators (2017) Database resources of the national center for biotechnology information. Nucleic Acids Research 45, D12–d17.Google Scholar
Ostfeld, RS and Keesing, F (2000) Biodiversity and disease risk: the case of lyme disease. Conservation Biology 14, 722–728.Google Scholar
Outlaw, DC, Harvey, JA, Drovetski, SV and Voelker, G (2017) Diversity and distribution of avian haemosporidians in sub-Saharan Africa: an inter-regional biogeographic overview. Parasitology 144, 394–402.Google Scholar
Pérez-Rodríguez, A, Fernández-González, S, de la Hera, I and Pérez-Tris, J (2013) Finding the appropriate variables to model the distribution of vector-borne parasites with different environmental preferences: climate is not enough. Global Change Biology 19, 3245–3253.Google Scholar
Prenter, J, MacNeil, C, Dick, JTA and Dunn, AM (2004) Roles of parasites in animal invasions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 19, 385–390.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2017) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Reino, L (2005) Variation partitioning for range expansion of an introduced species: the common waxbill Estrilda astrild in Portugal. Journal of Ornithology 146, 377–382.Google Scholar
Reino, L and Silva, T (1998) The distribution and expansion of the Common Waxbill (Estrilda astrild) in the Iberian Peninsula. Biologia e Conservazione della Fauna 102, 163–167.Google Scholar
Sick, H (1997) Ornitologia Brasileira, 2 edn. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira.Google Scholar
Stiels, D, Schidelko, K, Engler, JO, Elzen, Rvd and Rödder, D (2011) Predicting the potential distribution of the invasive Common Waxbill Estrilda astrild (Passeriformes: Estrildidae). Jornal of Ornithology 152, 769–780.Google Scholar
Sullivan, MJP, Davies, RG, Reino, L and Franco, AMA (2012) Using dispersal information to model the species-environment relationship of spreading non-native species. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3, 870–879.Google Scholar
Tango, T (1995) A class of tests for detecting ‘general’ and ‘focused’ clustering of rare diseases. Statistics in Medicine 14, 2323–2334.Google Scholar
Torchin, ME, Lafferty, KD, Dobson, AP, McKenzie, VJ and Kuris, AM (2003) Introduced species and their missing parasites. Nature 421, 628–630.Google Scholar
Valkiūnas, G (2005) Avian Malaria Parasites and Other Haemosporidia. Florida: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Ventim, R, Mendes, L, Ramos, JA, Cardoso, H and Pérez-Tris, J (2012) Local haemoparasites in introduced wetland passerines. Journal of Ornithology 153, 1253–1259.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Lopes et al. supplementary material 1

Supplementary Table

Download Lopes et al. supplementary material 1(PDF)
PDF 218.6 KB