Spring reproductive success influences autumnal malarial load in a passerine bird
Résumé
Although avian haemosporidian parasites are widely used as model organisms to study
fundamental questions in evolutionary and behavorial ecology of host-parasite inter-
actions, some of their basic characteristics, such as seasonal variations in within-host
density, are still mostly unknown. In addition, their interplay with host reproductive suc-
cess in the wild seems to depend on the interaction of many factors, starting with host
and parasite species and the temporal scale under study. Here, we monitored the par-
asitemia of two haemosporidian parasites – Plasmodium relictum (lineage SGS1) and P.
homonucleophilum (lineage SW2) – in two wild populations of great tits (Parus major) in
Switzerland over three years, to characterize their dynamics. We also collected data on
birds’ reproductive output – laying date, clutch size, fledging success – to determine
whether they were associated with parasitemia before (winter), during (spring) and after
(autumn) breeding season. Parasitemia of both species dramatically increased in spring,
in a way that was correlated to parasitemia in winter. Parasitemia before and during
breeding season did not explain reproductive success. However, the birds which fledged
the more chicks had higher parasitemia in autumn, which was not associated with their
parasitemia in previous spring. Our results tend to indicate that high haemosporidian
parasite loads do not impair reproduction in great tits, but high resource allocation into
reproduction can leave birds less able to maintain low parasitemia over the following
months.