The poultry pathogen Histomonas meleagridis is transmitted by chicken cecal worms (Heterakis gallinarum) and potentially second order insect vectors paratenic hosts. Darkling beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) are farm pests that infest barns. An outstanding question the degree to which darkling transmit both Heterakis Histomonas. In this study we monitored populations of assessed their positivit...

Louhi, Katja-Riikka Evolutionary ecology of complex life cycle parasites from genotypes to species assemblages Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2012, 42 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Biological and Environmental Science ISSN 1456-9701; 240) ISBN 978-951-39-4747-7 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4748-4 (PDF) Yhteenveto: Imumatoloisten evolutiivinen ekologia – genotyypeistä lajiyhteisöihin Diss. Among the m...

Migratory birds are known to play a role as long-distance vectors for many microorganisms. To investigate whether this is true of rickettsial agents as well, we characterized tick infestation and gathered ticks from 13,260 migratory passerine birds in Sweden. A total of 1127 Ixodes spp. ticks were removed from these birds and the extracted DNA from 957 of them was available for analyses. The DN...

Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are considered a threat for their potential to seed human influenza pandemics. Despite their acknowledged importance, there are significant unknowns regarding AIV transmission dynamics in their natural hosts, wild birds. Of particular interest is the difference in subtype dynamics between human and bird populations-in human populations, typically only two or three...

Emerging infectious diseases often result from pathogens jumping to novel hosts. Identifying possibilities and constraints on host transfer is therefore an important facet of research in disease ecology. Host transfers can be studied for the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum, predominantly a pathogen of poultry until its 1994 appearance and subsequent epidemic spread in a wild songbird, the ho...

The parasites of genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon are well-known avian haematozoa and can cause declined productivity and high mortality in wild birds. The objective of the study was to record the prevalence of haematozoan parasites in a wide range of wetland birds in Bangladesh. Six species of Haemoproteus, seven species of Plasmodium, one unidentified species of Leucocytozoo...

Evidence from field studies suggests that Culex pipiens, the primary mosquito vector of West Nile virus (WNV) in the northeastern and north central United States, feeds preferentially on American robins (Turdus migratorius). To determine the contribution of innate preferences to observed preference patterns in the field, we conducted host preference trials with a known number of adult female C....

Until 2001, H6N1 influenza viruses in the Hong Kong bird markets were represented by a single stable A/teal/Hong Kong/W312/97-like lineage. Beginning in 2001, despite a reduction in overall prevalence, an increase was observed in the number of H6 viruses isolated from chickens and other hosts. To assess any changes in H6 viruses, we characterized 18 H6 viruses isolated in the Hong Kong bird mar...

Sir, Acanthocephalan (“spiny-headed”) worms are enteroparasites of birds characterised by a retractile proboscis armed with rows of thorns (Lacina & Bird, 2000). They penetrate the intestinal mucosa with the proboscis causing inflammation and nodules (Heidenreich, 1997). An arthropod (insect or mollusk) becomes the first intermediate host ingesting acanthocephalan eggs that contain the larvae (...