title: The impact of conservation-driven translocations on blood parasite prevalence in the Seychelles warbler.
abstract: Introduced populations often lose the parasites they carried in their native range, but little is known about which processes may cause parasite loss during host movement. Conservation-driven translocations could provide an opportunity to identify the mechanisms involved. Using 3,888 blood samples collected over 22 years, we investigated parasite prevalence in populations of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) after individuals were translocated from Cousin Island to four new islands (Aride, Cousine, Denis and Frégate). Only a single parasite (Haemoproteus nucleocondensus) was detected on Cousin (prevalence = 52%). This parasite persisted on Cousine (prevalence = 41%), but no infection was found in individuals hatched on Aride, Denis or Frégate. It is not known whether the parasite ever arrived on Aride, but it has not been detected there despite 20 years of post-translocation sampling. We confirmed that individuals translocated to Denis and Frégate were infected, with initial prevalence similar to Cousin. Over time, prevalence decreased on Denis and Frégate until the parasite was not found on Denis two years after translocation, and was approaching zero prevalence on Frégate. The loss (Denis) or decline (Frégate) of H. nucleocondensus, despite successful establishment of infected hosts, must be due to factors affecting parasite transmission on these islands.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Eleanor A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Fairfield
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK.|Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hutchings
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Danielle L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Gilroy
authors.affiliation: Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sjouke A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kingma
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.affiliation: Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Komdeur
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK.|Nature Seychelles, Centre for Environment and Education, The Sanctuary, PO Box 1310, Roche Caiman, Victoria, Mahé, Republic of Seychelles.
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D056727:Endangered Species; D005260:Female; D016787:Haemosporida / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011529:Protozoan Infections, Animal / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012750:Seychelles; D020308:Songbirds / Q000097:blood / Q000469:parasitology*