cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Departmento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Almería, Spain.
Parasitology. 2021 Jul;148(8):904-912. doi: 10.1017/S0031182021000470. Epub 2021 Mar 17.
Coloniality in birds is often associated with an increase in parasite burden, but whether the co-occurrence of several host species influences the prevalence and abundance of ectoparasites and their relationship with colony size or density remains poorly known. Here, we studied mixed-species breeding colonies formed after the provision of artificial breeding structures for restoring the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) population in Portugal, to investigate the influence of colony traits on ectoparasite infestation. We sampled four groups of ectoparasites (carnid flies, haematophagous mites, louse flies and chewing lice) in four hosts: lesser kestrels, European rollers (Coracias garrulus), feral pigeons (Columba livia) and spotless starlings (Sturnus unicolor). Each host species had a distinct infracommunity of ectoparasites, regardless of colony traits such as size, density or host richness. The abundance of the most common ectoparasite, Carnus hemapterus, was influenced by colony composition – number of nests of each host species – rather than by colony size or density, with its abundance being diluted with increasing numbers of less suitable hosts such as starlings. The increased contact between multiple species of hosts in breeding colonies may complexify host–parasite interactions and challenge our current knowledge on the ecological relationships between host sociality and parasitism.
鸟类的殖民地性通常与寄生虫负担的增加有关，但几种宿主物种的共存是否会影响外寄生虫的流行率和丰度及其与殖民地大小或密度的关系仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了在葡萄牙为恢复小隼（Falco naumanni）种群而提供人工繁殖结构后形成的混合物种繁殖群体，以调查殖民地特征对外寄生虫感染的影响。我们在四个宿主（小隼、欧洲卷尾鸟（Coracias garrulus）、野鸽（Columba livia）和星椋鸟（Sturnus unicolor））中采样了四类外寄生虫（食肉蝇、吸血螨、虱蝇和食毛虱）。每个宿主物种都有独特的外寄生虫次生物种群，无论殖民地特征（如大小、密度或宿主丰富度）如何。最常见的外寄生虫 Carnus hemapterus 的丰度受殖民地组成的影响-每个宿主物种的巢数-而不是受殖民地大小或密度的影响，其丰度随着越来越多不适合的宿主（如星椋鸟）的增加而稀释。繁殖群体中多种宿主之间增加的接触可能会使宿主-寄生虫相互作用复杂化，并挑战我们目前对宿主社会性和寄生之间生态关系的认识。
