Abstract
Infection patterns of parasites, including their prevalence, diversity and host specificity, can be impacted by many biological and environmental factors, but no study has focused on the circadian rhythms of vertebrate hosts, which may affect susceptibilities and encounter rates between hosts and vectors and further shape host-parasite associations. In this study, we focused on avian haemosporidians, a classical model in studies of host-parasite associations, and investigated the infection patterns in rescued raptors brought to the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center during 2007–2020. We first assessed the association between prevalence and host biotic traits; haemosporidian prevalence was higher in the nocturnal raptors than in the diurnal raptors, and the prevalence of Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon in the nocturnal raptors was significantly higher than that in the diurnal raptors. Furthermore, we analysed the phylogenetic relationship and host-parasite network-level differences of haemosporidian parasites in diurnal and nocturnal raptors, and demonstrated that the lineages infecting the diurnal and nocturnal raptors were not clearly separated, but the nocturnal lifestyle led to a more specialized host-parasite network structure. These variations in host-parasite associations may be driven by different susceptibilities of the hosts and the diversity or abundance of vectors during the day and night. Our study provides new insight into host-parasite associations shaped by circadian rhythm and calls for more studies on the underlying mechanisms of parasite infection.
Highlights
Parasites are widely distributed in a variety of organisms, and parasitic infection has a variety of effects on the fitness of the individual host, including death and reduced reproductive success, which further affects the health of the host population [1,2,3,4]
We demonstrated that the linages infecting the diurnal and nocturnal raptors were not clearly separated, but that a eages infecting the diurnal and nocturnal raptors were not clearly separated, but that a nocturnal lifestyle led to a more specialized host-parasite network structure
Our study provided a new approach for comparing parasite prevalence between diurnal and nocturnal raptors distributing in the same urban habitat, which may help with understanding the transmission of malaria and related infectious diseases
Summary
Parasites are widely distributed in a variety of organisms, and parasitic infection has a variety of effects on the fitness of the individual host, including death and reduced reproductive success, which further affects the health of the host population [1,2,3,4]. Previous studies have shown that these blood parasites infect bird species to varying degrees, including specific distributions across different geographic ranges [10,11,12], lineage-level host specificity in different climatic conditions [13], and variations in prevalence among host families or congeneric species [14,15]. These observed variations can be driven by multiple biological and environmental factors. Host phylogeny contributes to predicting patterns of haemosporidian infection, and previous studies have shown that closely related hosts share more similar parasite communities and phylogenetic distance is a key predictor of cross-species transmission [22,23]
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