Increase in avian malaria at upper elevation in Hawaii

Author:

Freed, Leonard A., Cann, Rebecca L., Goff, M. Lee, Kuntz, Wendy A., Bodner, Gustav R.

Title:

Increase in avian malaria at upper elevation in Hawaii

Periodical:

Condor

Year:

2005

Volume:

107

Pages:

753-764

Subject:

Avian malaria Climatic changes Hawaiian honeycreepers Mosquito vector

Summary:

Evolved in the absence of mosquito-borne diseases such as avian malaria, (Plasmodium spp), are the Hawaiian honeycreepers, (Drepanidinae). However, starting in the 1920s, malaria has been largely responsible for a wave of extinctions and the endangerment among the Hawaiian forest birds. As a result, most honeycreepers, (especially the endangered species), now mainly live in forests that are above 1500 m elevations, where cool temperatures prevent effective development of malaria in mosquitoes. Reported here is the prevalence of malaria that has more than doubled throughout a decade, in Hawaiian forest birds that live at the 1900 m elevation on the island of Hawaii. This increase is associated with the breeding of mosquitoes as it relates to warmer summertime air temperatures. A direct evidence of tolerance to malaria, and a possible cost of tolerance in wild native birds, is also reported. This tolerance is adding to an accumulation of malaria at upper elevations even while vectors are rare and air temperatures are too low for complete development of the parasite in the vector. These data gives a glimpse of how malaria is developing into an infectious disease at upper elevations. This situation in Hawaii is widely used as an example of how an introduced pathogen can decimate a fauna.

Label:

Birds - General

URL:

http://cletus.uhh.hawaii.edu:2074/10.1650/7820.1

Date:

2005

Collection:

Periodicals