Avian malaria may be behind drastic decline of London’s House Sparrows

London’s House Sparrows have plummeted by 71% since 1995, with new research suggesting avian malaria could be to blame.

Once ubiquitous across the capital city, the sudden, and unexplained decline of the iconic birds led a team from ZSL, the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the University of Liverpool to investigate if parasite infections were involved.

Researchers collected data between November 2006 and September 2009 at 11 sites across London. Each site was centred around a single breeding colony and spaced at least four kilometres apart to ensure that birds from different groups didn’t mix. The team estimated changes in bird numbers by counting the mature males and took tiny blood and faecal samples from sparrows, carefully caught and soon released, to monitor infection rates and severity.

Of the 11 colonies studied, seven were declining. On average 74% of sparrows carried avian malaria – a strain that only affects birds - but this differed between groups with some as high as 100%. However, it was infection intensity (i.e. the number of parasites per bird) that varied significantly and was higher on average in the declining colonies.

Former ZSL Institute of Zoology researcher and lead author Dr Daria Dadam, now of the BTO, said: “Parasite infections are known to cause wildlife declines elsewhere and our study indicates that this may be happening with the House Sparrow in London. We tested for a number of parasites, but only Plasmodium relictum, the parasite that causes avian malaria, was associated with reducing bird numbers.”

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Brit zoo uses PLASTIC penguins after disease causes nationwide bird shortage

A ZOO has been forced to use fake plastic penguins in its new state-of-the-art £60,000 enclosure - due to a nationwide shortage.

By Sam Webb / Published 2nd October 2018

London Zoo: Meet the penguin rescued from a broken egg

Telford Exotic Zoo in Shropshire opened their ambitious new penguin exhibit in anticipation of welcoming a batch of Humboldt penguins.

The zoo even sent staff on a penguin keeper course so that they could be prepared for the new arrivals.

But now, after months of preparation, keepers have been told the penguins will not be arriving because of a national outbreak of avian malaria.

Zoo owner Scott Adams, 35, said that he still had no idea when the penguins would be arriving, if ever, and so has been forced to instead stock the pool with six plastic models.

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Kauai bird recovery project seeks to eradicate bird illness in the islands

Thursday, March 15th 2018, 6:37 am GMTThursday, March 15th 2018, 6:42 am GMT

By HNN Staff

The Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project is gearing up in the fight against avian malaria.

In an effort to preserve Kauai's dwindling bird population, the bird recovery group is raising money to support teams that plan to ride Kauai's forests of malaria-spreading mosquitoes.

The "Save Kauai's Spectacular Birds from Avian Malaria" campaign, nicknamed "Save a Bird, Swat a Skeeter" will send out bird researchers to monitor birds, as well as find and eliminate local mosquito populations.

Avian malaria is a mosquito-born disease that is infecting the health of rare Hawaiian Honeycreepers on Kauai.

Three endangered forest bird species on Kauai are at risk of imminent extinction. There are now less than 500 Akikiki and the Puaiohi and the ?Akeke‘e are also highly vulnerable, with less than 1,000 of the birds left left. The ‘Akeke’e population has dropped by more than 90 percent in the last 10 years. 

The bird recovery project and its partners plan to halt these trends by stamping out avian malaria, which is the single biggest threat to these species.

“To combat avian malaria, we need to know how many birds are infected and where the mosquito populations are breeding," said Lisa Crampton, project coordinator for the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project, in a news release.

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Invasive birds spreading avian malaria in eastern Australia

Indian Mynas threaten bird life in South East Queensland region

Date:October 20, 2015

Source:Griffith University

An invasive bird species is carrying, and potentially spreading, a high prevalence of avian malaria throughout its range in eastern Australia, a Griffith University PhD candidate has uncovered.

Nicholas Clark found that up to 40% of Indian Mynas in the South East Queensland region can carry malaria parasites. While they can't infect humans, the parasites pose a significant threat to native wildlife.

He said that because Mynas carry some malaria strains exotic to Australia, the spread of the Myna could put our native birds such as parrots, magpies and butcher birds at risk.

His discovery, which formed his thesis project while studying with the School of Environment, was published online on 19 October in the International Journal for Parasitology.

"Malaria parasites are common in Australian birds but through the use of genetic techniques I have discovered they are more diverse than originally thought," the former Gold Coast student, who now works for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said.

Nicholas said that some of the malaria parasites found in Australia were probably introduced from other countries and are now being spread by the Myna, which was brought to Australia in the 1800s to control insect pests on crops. But today they are considered an aggressive pest that has the potential to cause significant negative impacts on biodiversity.

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Avian malaria also affects wild birds in Austria

Date:

February 10, 2015

Source:

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Summary:

Avian malaria is not uncommon in Central Europe, as many endemic wild birds are infected with species of Plasmodium, which cause avian malaria. In most cases these blood parasites, transmitted by mosquitoes, do not produce any symptoms in endemic birds, as they have adapted to the parasites. A team of pathologists recently showed for the first time that native birds, too, are susceptible to avian malaria.

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Hawaii bird develops tolerance for avian malaria

JANUARY 31, 2014

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Research by U.S. Geological Survey scientists shows a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper has developed a tolerance for avian malaria.

The agency said Thursday its researchers found Hawaii amakihi birds who live at lower elevations are able to tolerate infections much better than birds from higher elevations.

Their study was published this month in the journal EcoHealth.

Microbiologist Carter Atkinson and his colleagues captured birds from higher and lower elevations, put some in a control groups and exposed others to malaria. Lower elevation birds exposed to malaria lost less weight and had a lower mortality rate than birds from higher elevations.

Avian malaria has devastated many other species of Hawaiian honeycreepers. Mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases aren't native to Hawaii and native birds have no natural resistance to them.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/science/article/Hawaii-bird-develops-tolerance-for-avian-malaria-5192497.php

Avian malaria threatens Galapagos bird species

The Galapagos Islands may have inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, but scientists fear some of the species he observed may not be capable of adapting to new environmental challenges.

Experts say the introduction of foreign parasites to the islands and the increase in frequency of El Nino events, which scientists recently attributed to global warming, could push bird species in the Galapagos towards extinction.

"The situation is precarious," says Dr Patricia Parker, Endowed Professor of Zoological Studies at the University of Missouri St Louis (UMSL), "particularly for species such as the Galapagos penguin, which live in very small populations."

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Birds catching malaria in Alaska

Birds can catch malaria at least as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska, a new study confirms. And at the rate climate is expected to change, the risk zone for avian malaria might stretch beyond the Arctic Circle by 2080.

Throughout much of continental North America, malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites have been hitchhiking inside mosquitoes from bird to bird for eons. But many long-exposed bird species don’t get particularly sick because they’ve developed some degree of tolerance over time. What’s worrisome about the northward creep of malaria risk is that parasites might reach bird populations that haven’t been exposed, explains disease ecologist Ravinder Sehgal of San Francisco State University.

People aren’t at risk: The 80-plus species of Plasmodium that cause avian malaria don’t infect humans, nor do the five that cause human malaria affect birds. Climate may also change transmission risk for the human form of the disease, but with its own pattern.

Genuine made-in-Alaska malaria transmission showed up in several Fairbanks birds, Sehgal and his colleagues report September 19 in PLOS ONE. The researchers could tell the parasites had attacked locally because one bird, an infected myrtle warbler, was too young to have migrated yet and the remainder, all black-capped chickadees, stay in Alaska year-round.

Read on:  http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345337/title/Birds_catching_malaria_in_Alaska