Diversity of Haemosporidian parasites in wild birds in Serbia

Abstract

Prevalence and morphology of Haemosporidian blood microorganisms in wild birds are rather well studied across Western Europe from Sweden to Spain, while little has been known about the distribution and the ecology of avian blood parasites across the Balkan Peninsula. Recent data were published just for Bulgaria but research on avian malaria have never been done before in Serbia. We used a nested PCR protocol to examine the diversity of cytochrome b lineages from blood parasites of genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon. Birds were caught in the breeding season in 2011 at five different localities. In total 85 birds of 27 species and 9 families were examined for the presence of parasites. The overall prevalence of haemosporidians was 33.75%, estimated by blood smear screening. The most common parasite genus was Haemoproteus. No differences between juvenile were found, but there was a difference between males and females (18 males from seven species were infected in regards to six females from six species). The composition of parasites varied geographically.