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Research Team
Research Team
Braeden Pelko
Braeden Pelko
Majors: Zoology and Environmental Science
Ryan Shannon
Ryan Shannon
Department of Biology
Introduction
Introduction
Globally, bird populations are facing large declines, yet the role of disease remains understudied. Avian Malaria is a common disease of birds worldwide and is caused by three genera of parasites: Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon. Migration is particularly stressful and may be when birds are most vulnerable to the negative effects of parasites. Research regarding the prevalence of malarial parasites across seasons is relatively disregarded. Parasite prevalence in migrants could also vary by arrival to our stopover site in Ohio based on their respective migratory windows for spring and fall.
Research Questions
Research Questions
1.) Is a given haemosporidian genus causative for changes in arrival time overall or at a species level?
2.) Is there a significant relationship between infection rates of migratory birds and arrival time in Ohio?
Methods
Methods
Every bird tagged and sampled was taken from the Avian Research and Education Institute (AREI) located in Hueston Woods State Park. A blood sample was drawn from each bird and had DNA extracted to perform PCR. Every bird that showed a band was sequenced to produce a line of DNA code which had the nucleotides blast searched on the NIH website to find a match. Significant sample sizes of mostly thrushes were used to find associations to draw conclusions from.
Results and Discussion
Results and Discussion
Leucocytozoon prevalence was the highest in the fall and spring, while Haemoproteus was highest in the summer. This suggests that migrants that pass through Ohio in the fall and spring carry different parasites than migrants that breed in Ohio over the summer. There were no significant associations between infection status and arrival date in the spring or fall, but wood thrushes sampled in the early fall were more likely to be infected than ones sampled in the late fall. There is potential that the early infected arrival and late uninfected arrival of wood thrushes could represent different populations based on which part of North America they stop to breed.
Figure 1. Prevalence (%) ± SE of parasite genera each season.
We observed a nonsignificant trend where Haemoproteus
(red bars) prevalence was highest in the summer, and lower in spring and fall (GLM: χ2 = 5.514 p = 0.063). Leucocytozoon (green bars) was only found in birds sampled in the spring and fall (GLM: χ2 = 6.898 p = 0.032). Plasmodium (blue bars) prevalence did not differ across seasons (GLM: χ2 = 0.638 p = 0.727).
Figure 2. Day of year that individual thrushes (GCTH, SWTH, WOTH) were sampled in the spring migratory window, colored by infection status. There was a non-significant trend where uninfected birds arrived later than infected birds (p = 0.13). Error bars represent the standard error.
Figure 3. Day of year that thrushes (GCTH, SWTH, WOTH) were sampled in the fall migratory window, colored by infection status. We found a non-significant trend where Wood Thrushes (WOTH) sampled earlier in the fall season were more likely to be infected (p= 0.058).
Conclusions and Future Study
Conclusions and Future Study
Migration timing and infection status and parasite prevalence did not have a significsant relationship, but there is potential for there to be a significant relationship. Future studies that increase sample size and extend sampling times will help shed light on whether parasites influence and migration timing. New developments on the study of breeding populations can discern the subtle differences in arrival timing for these migrating species.
The following is an image of poster presented at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Forum
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
We thank AREI and the lab of Dr. Ashley Love for providing bird samples and banding data. We also thank the King family for their donation establishing the Applied Science Partnership Lab.
References
References
Emmenegger, T., Bensch, S., Hahn, S., Kishkinev, D., Procházka, P., Zehtindjiev, P., & Bauer, S. (2021). Ecology and evolution, 11(2), 753-762.
Rivero & Gandon, 2018. Trends in Parasitology, 34(8), 712-726; Smith et al., 2018.
Parasitology Research, 117(2), 471-489.
de Angeli Dutra, D., Fecchio, A., Braga, É. M., & Poulin, R. (2021). International
Journal for Parasitology, 51(10).
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
[Articulate 3-4 (out of the 8) career readiness skills (NACE competencies) that you have gained through your research experience. ]
Carrer and Self Development: I became proactive in a reseqrch area that assist my future career goals and will help me development my personal interests and skill for my future
Technology: Used and operated new programs like R Studio and fine tuned my abilities in other softwares like Excel and Powerpoint as well as using lab methods like PCR and DNA sequencing.
Critical Thinking: Thought deeply about my own personal research to develop a creative and thought provoking idea and figuring out connections and relationships through my own anaylses.
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