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Full-Text Articles in Poultry or Avian Science
Ectoparasitism Shortens The Breeding Season In A Colonial Bird, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown
Ectoparasitism Shortens The Breeding Season In A Colonial Bird, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
When blood-feeding parasites increase seasonally, their deleterious effects may prevent some host species, especially those living in large groups where parasites are numerous, from reproducing later in the summer. Yet the role of parasites in regulating the length of a host’s breeding season—and thus the host’s opportunity for multiple brooding—has not been systematically investigated. The highly colonial cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), a temperate-latitude migratory songbird in the western Great Plains, USA, typically has a relatively short (eight to nine week) breeding season, with birds rarely nesting late in the summer. Colonies at which ectoparasitic swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarius) were experimentally …
Bird Movement Predicts Buggy Creek Virus Infection In Insect Vectors, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Amy T. Moore, Nicholas Komar
Bird Movement Predicts Buggy Creek Virus Infection In Insect Vectors, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Amy T. Moore, Nicholas Komar
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Predicting the spatial foci of zoonotic diseases is a major challenge for epidemiologists and disease ecologists. Migratory birds are often thought to be responsible for introducing some aviozoonotic pathogens such as West Nile and avian influenza viruses to a local area, but most information on how bird movement correlates with virus prevalence is anecdotal or indirect. We report that the prevalence of Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) infection in cimicid swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarius), the principal invertebrate vector for this virus, was directly associated with the likelihood of movement by cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), an amplifying host …