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The impact of conservation-driven translocations on blood parasite prevalence in the Seychelles warbler

Fairfield, EA, Hutchings, K, Gilroy, DL, Kingma, SA, Burke, T, Komdeur, J and Richardson, DS (2016) The impact of conservation-driven translocations on blood parasite prevalence in the Seychelles warbler. Scientific Reports, 6 (1). ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Introduced populations often lose the parasites they carried in their native range, but little is known about which processes may cause parasite loss during host movement. Conservation-driven translocations could provide an opportunity to identify the mechanisms involved. Using 3,888 blood samples collected over 22 years, we investigated parasite prevalence in populations of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) after individuals were translocated from Cousin Island to four new islands (Aride, Cousine, Denis and Frégate). Only a single parasite (Haemoproteus nucleocondensus) was detected on Cousin (prevalence = 52%). This parasite persisted on Cousine (prevalence = 41%), but no infection was found in individuals hatched on Aride, Denis or Frégate. It is not known whether the parasite ever arrived on Aride, but it has not been detected there despite 20 years of post-translocation sampling. We confirmed that individuals translocated to Denis and Frégate were infected, with initial prevalence similar to Cousin. Over time, prevalence decreased on Denis and Frégate until the parasite was not found on Denis two years after translocation, and was approaching zero prevalence on Frégate. The loss (Denis) or decline (Frégate) of H. nucleocondensus, despite successful establishment of infected hosts, must be due to factors affecting parasite transmission on these islands.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Animals; Songbirds; Haemosporida; Protozoan Infections, Animal; Bird Diseases; Prevalence; Animal Migration; Seychelles; Female; Male; Endangered Species; Animal Migration; Animals; Bird Diseases; Endangered Species; Female; Haemosporida; Male; Prevalence; Protozoan Infections, Animal; Seychelles; Songbirds
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Divisions: Biological & Environmental Sciences (from Sep 19)
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
SWORD Depositor: A Symplectic
Date Deposited: 25 Aug 2022 08:47
Last Modified: 25 Aug 2022 09:00
DOI or ID number: 10.1038/srep29596
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17442
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