High prevalence of haemosporidian parasites infection in southern grey shrike Lanius meridionalis (Laniidae, Aves) from agricultural areas

Abstract

We present the first data on prevalence of haematozoa in Southern grey shrikes Lanius meridionalis (Temminck) in agricultural areas of western Spain. A fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of the parasite was amplified, using a nested PCR assay from blood sample. Of the 81 shrikes analysed, 65.4% showed infection with Haemoproteus (Kruse, 1890) while neither Leucocytozoon (Berestneff, 1904) nor Plasmodium (Marchiafava et Celli, 1885) were detected. Our results were in line with the high Haemoproteus infection rate prevalence recorded in some species of migratory passerines in the same study area. There were more birds infected in irrigated crops than in non-irrigated crops (82.6% and 58.6%, respectively) although this trend was not statistically significant. No significant differences were recorded between infected and non-infected birds by age, sex and season (breeding, non-breeding). © 2012 Copyright 2012 Unione Zoologica Italiana.