Age-specific haemosporidian infection dynamics and survival in Seychelles warblers

Hammers, M; Komdeur, J; Kingma, SA; Hutchings, K; Fairfield, EA; Gilroy, DL; Richardson, DS

Abstract

Parasites may severely impact the fitness and life-history of their hosts. After infection, surviving individuals may suppress the growth of the parasite, or completely clear the infection and develop immunity. Consequently, parasite prevalence is predicted to decline with age. Among elderly individuals, immunosenescence may lead to a late-life increase in infection prevalence. We used a 21-year longitudinal dataset from one population of individually-marked Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) to investigate age-dependent prevalence of the GRW1 strain of the intracellular protozoan blood parasite Haemoproteus nucleocondensus and whether infections with this parasite affect age-dependent survival. We analyzed 2454 samples from 1431 individuals and found that H. nucleocondensus infections could rarely be detected in nestlings. Prevalence increased strongly among fledglings and peaked among older first year birds. Prevalence was high among younger adults and declined steeply until ca 4 years of age, after which it was stable. Contrary to expectations, H. nucleocondensus prevalence did not increase among elderly individuals and we found no evidence that annual survival was lower in individuals suffering from an infection. Our results suggest that individuals clear or suppress infections and acquire immunity against future infections, and provide no evidence for immunosenescence nor an impact of chronic infections on survival.

Citation

Hammers, M., Komdeur, J., Kingma, S., Hutchings, K., Fairfield, E., Gilroy, D., & Richardson, D. (2016). Age-specific haemosporidian infection dynamics and survival in Seychelles warblers. Scientific reports, 6, 29720. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29720

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 22, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 19, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Print ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Volume: 6
• Pages: 29720
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29720
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep29720
• Related Public URLs: http://www.nature.com/srep/
• Additional Information: Funders : Natural Environment Research Council (NERC);The Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) (NWO);Natural Environment Research Council;Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; Projects : Telomeres as biomarkers of cost and quality in a wild vertebrate population;Transgenerational impacts on senescence: quantitative genetics of cellular and organismal ageing in the wild;Sharing is caring: the evolutionary stability of group living in cooperative animals; Grant Number: NE/K005502/1; Grant Number: NE/F02083X/1; Grant Number: NER/I/S/2002/00712; Grant Number: NWO-TOP 854.11.003; Grant Number: NWO-VENI 863.15.020; Grant Number: NWO-VENI 863.13.017; Grant Number: NWO-Rubicon 825.11.011