Publisher's Synopsis
We used PCR and DNA sequencing to screen for haemosporidian parasites (Haemoproteus and Plasmodium) in 2,488 individual birds from 104 species and 22 families, primarily understory suboscine passerines, captured in a lowland Amazonian forest in Ecuador as a first major step to understanding the transmission dynamics of this cosmopolitan group of parasites in this region. To assess diversity of avian haemosporidia in our study site, we identified putative evolutionary lineages of haemosporidia using the mtDNA gene cytochrome b (cyt b). We sampled birds over 9 years, which allowed us to assess annual variation in haemosporidian prevalence. Additionally, we investigated among-species variation in prevalence and tested relationships between traits of hosts and prevalence of haemosporidia in a comparative analysis. Finally, we estimated host specificity of each recovered parasite lineage and compared several indices with different details of
