Our revised manuscript on the short- and long-term effects of coccidians on moult and feather quality was accepted for publication in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Bold face names below indicate authors financed by a CNCSIS grant (#TE291/2010).
Pap PL, Vágási CI, Bărbos L and Marton A 2012. Chronic coccidian infestation compromises flight feather quality in house sparrows, Passer domesticus. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (in press).
Our manuscript about the long-term effects of an intestinal parasite (Isospora coccidian) on moult schedule and feather quality has now a “major revision” decision in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Parasite’s effect on host reproduction has received considerable attention, but surprisingly little is known about the effects of parasites on moult and feather quality, despite feather functionality deeply influences lifetime fitness. Intestinal parasites are good candidates for mediating plumage aspects because they divert vital resources directly from host’s alimentary tube when the protein exigencies of feather production are the highest. We manipulated parasite levels (medicated vs control group) of adult male and female house sparrows throughout 15 months spanning two natural moulting periods. Although coccidians had no effect on moult initiation and pattern, medicated birds developed consistently higher quality feathers regarding several feather traits. Some feather aspects were affected only at long-term (i.e. no effect during the first moult, but marked effect during the second). We stress the importance of long-term studies / experiments especially in case of parasites that infest their hosts throughout their lifespan. Bold face names below indicate authors financed by a CNCSIS grant (#TE291/2010).
Pap PL, Vágási CI, Bărbos L and Marton A. Chronic coccidian infestation compromises flight feather quality in house sparrows, Passer domesticus.
Our paper on lice sex ratio and sexual dimorphism was finally accepted for publication in Journal of Parasitology. Authors marked with bold are financed by a CNCSIS grant (no. PN II. RU TE 291/2010), which partially supported this study.
Pap PL, Costică A, Vágási CI, Benkő Z and Vincze O 2012. Sex ratio and sexual dimorphism of three lice species with contrasting prevalence parasitizing the house sparrow. Journal of Parasitology (in press).
Our paper on how feather quality is influenced by moult rate and body condition was accepted for publication in PLoS ONE. Authors marked with bold are financed by a CNCSIS grant (no. PN II. RU TE 291/2010).
Vágási CI, Pap PL, Vincze O, Benkő Z, Marton A and Barta Z 2012. Haste Makes Waste but Condition Matters: Molt Rate-Feather Quality Trade-Off in a Sedentary Songbird. PLoS ONE (in press)
Update, 15 July 2012
The final version can be accessed here.
This year’s manuscript acceptance balance was too biased towards rejections (4 manuscripts, even more instances). Fortunately, the last week we received good news as well. After being rejected from Evolutionary Ecology, our manuscript on lice sex ratio (see News #10) received major revisions from Journal of Parasitology. Another manuscript about the trade-off between moult rate and both flight and body feather quality was provisionally accepted with minor revisions in PLoS ONE. Besides, we have 3 submissions without decision and 3 manuscripts in preparation.
We are happy to announce the joining of two new members to our research group: Laura Pătraș and Gergely Osváth. Laura joined the ‘lab subgroup’. She will analyze the blood samples collected within various physiological ecology studies using a wide range of immunological and antioxidant markers. Gergely joined the ‘field subgroup’. He will employ different techniques to catch and sample birds in their natural habitats and help managing aviary experiments. Welcome!
We (Pap et al.) submitted a new manuscript. This time Journal of Evolutionary Biology is the target journal. The paper presents new insights into how life-history, ecological, behavioural and parasitological traits affect the evolution of constitutive innate and acquired cell-mediated immunity based on phylogenetic comparative analyses involving 89 Europian birds. The project was financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research (PN II. RU TE 291/2010 to Péter L. Pap and Csongor I. Vágási). Fingers crossed. 🙂
The paper on feather mites and avian host body condition (see News #9) was accepted for publication in Journal of Avian Biology. The study was partially financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research (RU PN II TE 291/2010 to Péter L. Pap and Csongor I. Vágási).
Galván I, Aguilera E, Atiénzar F, Barba E, Blanco G, Cantó JL, Cortés V, Frías Ó, Kovács I, Meléndez L, Møller AP, Monrós JS, Pap PL, Piculo R, Senar JC, Serrano D, Tella JL, Vágási CI, Vögeli M and Jovani R. 2012. Feather mites (Acari: Astigmata) and body condition of their avian hosts: a large correlative study. Journal of Avian Biology (in press).
A couple of days ago we (Pap et al.) submitted a manuscript for review in Evolutionary Ecology. This paper searches for parasite traits (prevalence, abundance, dispersal capacity, subpopulation size) that could explain the extent to which sex ratio is distorted towards females and how this might affect sexual size dimorphism and feeding efficiency of three Ischnoceran lice species. To this end, around 30 adult house sparrows (1:1 male:female) were sampled across 16 Romanian populations.
A manuscript about the association between avian host condition and feather mite load was previously accepted for publication in Journal of Avian Biology. Although correlative, its scientific impact is guaranteed by being based on a large dataset involving 83 host species, >20,000 birds measured over 22 years and across 151 localities by a joint work of 20 researchers all over Europe. The take-home message of the work is that the nature of interaction between birds and feather mites is commensalistic which relies on the consistent minor and overall positive realtionship between mites on host condition (expressed as size-corrected weight). It is for future studies to unravel causation, i.e. whether mites exert weak positive effect on host condition or host condition determines how many mites can inhabit a host “island” (carrying capacity).
