“So, the whole idea was to try and understand what exactly was actually being carried by our birds, in terms of what they were harboring," said Mduduzi Ndlovu, an animal ecologist and the head of the nature conservation program at the University of Mpumalanga. The harboring he’s referring to is the potential presence of blood parasites within the birds of Kruger National Park.
“We went throughout the entire Kruger National Park, the top and the bottom. And we basically just took blood samples, brought them into the lab, did a bit of molecular work, and then screened to find out what exactly they’re carrying,” he said.
They hypothesized that, just like how the park has a lot of bird diversity, it should also have a lot of bird parasite diversity. In total, the team gathered 1,035 blood samples from 55 bird species.
“And what we found, basically was that about 28% of those birds actually were infected by some kind of parasite,” he said.
In total, those 55 species were carrying 100 distinct parasite lineages.
“And then the second thing that we found is that out of those 100 lineages of parasites, 56 of them were actually new to science," said Ndlovu. "We didn't even know what they were.”
Information on those parasites has been deposited in the MalAvi database for other researchers to access.
“Because who knows if somebody goes somewhere else, and they're able to pick up some of these," said Ndlovu. "Or, are all of these parasites just unique to Southern Africa? We don't know, because nobody has ever defined them”
Which means these parasites need to be sorted and named, which will require further research and more information. But for now, Ndlovu and his colleagues do have an answer to their initial question.
“So, it seems to go hand in hand," he said. "The more birds you have, the higher the diversity of parasites that you get in those spaces.”
They also found that sites with high bird diversity also had high parasite diversity, that bird malaria infections were highest in closely related birds, and that every bird type had at least some kind of infection. Ndlovu hopes to use studies like these to better model the movement of diseases in birds and to learn more about the risks of potential zoonotic diseases.
“We have set a tone to say you need to find out what your birds are carrying, because birds are the most mobile species of all,” he said.
Though none of the parasites Ndlovu discovered present a threat to humanity, he emphasizes the importance of monitoring wild species to learn more about the spread and evolution of diseases and their hosts.
