Hurtrez-Boussès Sylvie, Perret Philippe, Renaud François, Blondel Jacques
CNRS-CEFE, 1919, Route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Fax: 33 04 67 41 21 38; e-mail:
Laboratoire de Parasitologie Comparée (UMR 5555, CNRS), Case 105, Université Montpellier II, Place E. Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France, , , , , , FR.
Oecologia. 1997 Nov;112(4):514-517. doi: 10.1007/s004420050339.
The detrimental effects of ectoparasites on the breeding success of birds have been especially well demonstrated in the case of ectoparasites that affect both chicks and their parents. Since blowfly larvae of the genus Protocalliphora attack only nestling birds, they represent a good model for testing the consequences of parasitism on nestlings. A Corsican population of blue tit suffers extremely high rates of infestation by blowflies, which are suspected to negatively affect young birds. Comparing experimentally deparasitized (treated) and naturally infested (control) broods, we showed that the attack by Protocalliphora causes anaemia and an important disturbance to the chicks. Therefore, we expected that these effects would have a negative impact on body condition and survival in the infested broods. Although we did not find any effect of treatment on fledging success, our predictions were confirmed by lower growth rate, body mass at fledging and tarsus length at fledging in the control compared with the treated group. This suggests that in this population, blowflies decrease the probability of recruitment of young blue tits.
外寄生虫对鸟类繁殖成功率的有害影响，在那些既影响雏鸟又影响其父母的外寄生虫案例中得到了特别充分的证明。由于原丽蝇属的蝇蛆只攻击雏鸟，它们是测试寄生对雏鸟影响后果的良好模型。科西嘉岛的一群蓝山雀遭受蝇类的极高感染率，人们怀疑这会对幼鸟产生负面影响。通过比较实验性除虫（处理过的）和自然感染（对照）的巢，我们发现原丽蝇的攻击会导致雏鸟贫血和严重不适。因此，我们预计这些影响会对受感染巢中的雏鸟身体状况和生存产生负面影响。虽然我们没有发现处理对 fledging success 有任何影响，但与处理组相比，对照组雏鸟的生长速度、 fledging 时的体重和 fledging 时的跗骨长度较低，证实了我们的预测。这表明在这个种群中，蝇类降低了年轻蓝山雀被招募的概率。 （注：“fledging success”这里可能是“出飞成功率”之类的意思，原文该词可能有误，推测为“fledgling success” ）
