The influence of the host sex on parasitemia of parasite lineages belonging to Haemoproteus majoris in a natural bird community.

Abstract

Immunological capability shows a sexual dimorphism in diverse animal species. Females are generally more immunocompetent than males, leading to the higher susceptibility of males to infection compared to females and thus greater infection-related pathology in males. These sex-differences in immunity remain understudied in birds. Here, we compared the percentage of parasitemia of three different parasite lineages belonging to the morphological species Haemoproteus majoris (namely, PARUS1, PHSIB1 and WW2) in terms of the sex of birds living in a natural community. We found that parasitemia (percentage of erythrocytes infected with parasites) of WW2 lineage, but not of the other two lineages of H. majoris, is higher in male birds compared to female birds. Similarly, we showed that the total parasitemia of these three H. majoris lineages is higher in male birds compared to female birds. Our study points out that male birds at the community level may be more susceptible to infection by certain parasites than female birds. We propose that sexual dimorphism in parasitemia of certain parasites in host birds might be more common than previously thought, similar to what is observed in other species, influencing host population dynamics in a sex-specific manner. Therefore, it can be speculated that infection by certain parasites might differentially affect male and female birds, possibly resulting in a bias in survival rates between sexes due to infections, in certain contexts.