Incidence of avian malaria in hummingbirds in humid premontane forests of Pichincha Province, Ecuador: A pilot study

Vet World Vol.14 April-2021 Article-12

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(4): 889-896

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.889-896

Claudia S. Abad¹, Markus P. Tellkamp¹, Isidro R. Amaro², and Lilian M. Spencer^1,3

1. Department of Biology, School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Yachay Tech University, Urcuquí, Ecuador.
2. Department of Mathematics, School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Yachay Tech University, Urcuquí, Ecuador.
3. Department of Cell Biology, Simón Bolívar University, AP 89000 Caracas, Venezuela.

Background and Aim: Avian malaria is a tropical disease caused by protozoans of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. As a nonlethal disease, avian malaria can affect the lifespan and reproductive rate of birds. If there is a differential effect depending on bird species, then this disease might have a significant effect on avian biodiversity. The current study aimed to determine the incidence of Plasmodium in hummingbirds in humid premontane forest areas.

Materials and Methods: Blood samples (n=60) were collected from hummingbirds from two areas (Santuario de Aves Milpe and Hacienda Puyucunapi) of Pichincha Province, Ecuador. Prevalence and parasitemia were determined by microscopic examination of blood smears stained with Giemsa reagent. Both study sites are part of a 1000 m elevational gradient; hence, elevation was used as a predictor variable for prevalence and parasitemia levels in a Mann–Whitney U-test. This test was also used to test for a sex bias.

Results: This study reports on a total of 12 bird species that inhabit both study sites. At Milpe, the lower elevation site, a prevalence of 100% was recorded, whereas at Puyucunapi, the prevalence was 96%. The combined prevalence was 97%. Elevation and sex did not influence prevalence nor parasitemia in hummingbirds.

Conclusion: This study does not suggest a significant elevation or sex bias on prevalence and parasitemia in hummingbirds. Keywords: avian malaria, humid forest, hummingbirds, Pichincha, Plasmodium.

Keywords: avian malaria, humid forest, hummingbirds, Pichincha, Plasmodium.

How to cite this article: Abad CS, Tellkamp MP, Amaro IR, Spencer LM (2021) Incidence of avian malaria in hummingbirds in humid premontane forests of Pichincha Province, Ecuador: A pilot study, Veterinary World, 14(4): 889-896.

Received: 23-11-2020 Accepted: 23-02-2021 Published online: 13-04-2021

Corresponding author: Lilian M. Spencer E-mail: spencerlilian@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.889-896

Copyright: Abad, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.