INVESTIGADORES
MANZOLI Dario Ezequiel
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Philornis spp. causes significant mortality in Greater Thornbirds nestlings: experimental evidence
Autor/es:
MANZOLI, DARÍO EZEQUIEL; BARENGO, EMILCE; ANTONIAZZI, LEANDRO RAÚL; ARRABAL, JUAN PABLO; SARAVIA, MARÍA JOSE; SILVESTRI, LEONARDO; ROHRMANN, DAVID; BELDOMÉNICO, PABLO
Lugar:
Puerto Iguazú
Reunión:
Conferencia; 59th Annual International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association; 2010
Institución organizadora:
Wildlife Disease Association
Resumen:
The genus Philornis
(Diptera: Muscidae) comprise a group of poorly know flies whose larvae
parasitize birds nestlings in the Neotropics. A negative impact on brood
success has been demonstrated for the semi-haematophagous Philornis downsi in Galapagos, but
for the remaining species of the genus, mostly burrowing subcutaneous larvae,
there is only documentation of negative associations between parasitism and
mortality, lacking experimental evidence that confirms causation. The goal of
this experiment was to dissect the specific impact of subcutaneous Philornis larvae on the survival of
nestlings of two of their preferred host species, Pitangus sulphuratus and Phacellodomus
ruber. To this aim we conducted a field experiment with a matched design,
in which, within a brood, one or more nestlings were randomly assigned to a
daily larva removal treatment, from hatching to fledging (or death) Their
siblings served as matched controls and larva removal was mocked on them. A
total of 58 P. sulphuratus (25
treated and 33 controls) and 27 Ph.
ruber (12 treated and 15 controls) were enrolled in the study. The data
was analyzed with a Generalized Linear Mixer Model. We found that nestlings of Ph. ruber that underwent larva
removal had over 5 time the odds of surviving than those of controls. On the
other hand, we did not observe an effect of larva removal on P. sulphuratus nestlings. This
differential impact between host species highlight the complexity of
host-parasite relationships and warrant further on these biological processes.