Journal Title
Title of Journal: J Ornithol
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Abbravation: Journal of Ornithology
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Publisher
Springer-Verlag
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Authors: Olof Hellgren
Publish Date: 2004/10/20
Volume: 146, Issue: 1, Pages: 55-60
Abstract
A total of 86 adult bluethroats Luscinia svecica from nine different localities covering the full length of the Fennoscandian mountain range were screened for blood parasites of the three genera Haemoproteus Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon using a recently developed polymerase chain reaction method The overall occurrence of infection was 593 Prevalence of Leucocytozoon spp 477 Plasmodium spp 233 and Haemoproteus spp 12 was detected Of the infected birds 151 carried mixed infections Five different mitochondrial DNAlineages of Leucocytozoon spp eight lineages of Plasmodium spp and one lineage of Haemoproteus spp were found Due to large sequence divergence these corresponded to at least five different species but with the possibility of all 14 being independent evolutionary units with the potential of evolving different effects on the host Of the lineages of Leucocytozoon spp the most common was found throughout the range The occurrence of the second most common lineage of Leucocytozoon spp showed significant variation in prevalence between sites The data also showed molecular evidence of one lineage of Leucocytozoon sp existing in more than one species of avian host thus challenging the use of host taxon as a taxonomic character when distinguishing between different species leucocytozoidsThe study was supported by grants from Stiftelsen Lunds Djurskyddsfond and Olle och Signild Engkvist Stiftelser Thanks to Charlotte Valind for excellent help during the sampling trip Åke Lindström for making the field trip possible and Kjell Grimsby Thomas Holmberg Trond Amundsen and NilsÅke Andersson for help during the field season I thank Dennis Hasselquist for scientific input Staffan Bensch and Jonas Waldenström provided insightful comments on the manuscript
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