RT Journal Article
T1 Young male blackcaps with blood parasite coinfections cope with oxidative stress favouring anthocyanin-rich food during migratory fattening
A1 Jiménez Gallardo, Lucía Gloria
A1 López Arrabe, Jimena
A1 Pérez Tris, Javier
A1 Remacha Sebastián, Carolina
AB Parasites  may  alter  host  physiology,  which  may  promote  behavioural  adaptations  to  counteract their effect. Adaptive feeding may help individuals to cope with infection, especially during physiologically demanding life stages. For instance, migrating birds need fuel for long-distance flights and repair oxidative damage caused by intense aerobic exercise, and parasites may influence on how individuals balance these needs. Infected birds may face increased oxidative challenges, which could induce them to favour anti-oxidant  defences  over  other  needs,  such  as  fattening.  We  tested  whether  migrating  birds can adaptively choose food according to their needs, favouring dietary antioxi-dants to cope with oxidative stress caused by haemosporidian blood parasites during migration. During autumn migration, we mist-netted young male Eurasian blackcaps Sylvia  atricapilla  stopping  over  in  central  Spain.  We  placed  the  birds  in  cages  where  they were offered fat and anthocyanin-enriched food alternatives. We measured prefer-ence for each food offer. We tested their infections with haemosporidian parasites by PCR techniques and their parasitaemia by blood smear inspection. We also measured physiological variables that account for nutritional and oxidative status in red blood cells and plasma. We found that birds with multiple infections favoured anthocyanin-enriched food controlling for an effect of body mass on food preference (lean blackcaps preferred anthocyanins, likely because they are urged to repair oxidative damage upon arrival on stopover with depleted energy reserves). Haemosporidian-infected birds had a lower antioxidant capacity of plasma, although no effect of infections on oxidative damage was detected, and individuals with more oxidative damage preferred anthocy-anin-enriched food. Our results suggest that haemosporidian infections may increase individual antioxidant needs, which could affect migratory performance if the urge to find dietary antioxidants reduces the rate of fuel consumption.
PB Wiley
SN 0908-8857
YR 2024
FD 2024-04-08
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/103177
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/103177
LA eng
NO Jiménez‐Gallardo, Lucía, Jimena López‐Arrabé, Javier Pérez‐Tris, y Carolina Remacha. «Young Male Blackcaps with Blood Parasite Coinfections Cope with Oxidative Stress Favouring Anthocyanin‐rich Food during Migratory Fattening». Journal of Avian Biology, 8 de abril de 2024, e03214. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.03214.
NO Author contributionsBoth  senior  co-authors  (*)  contributed  equally  and  are  listed    in    alphabetic    order.Lucía    Jiménez-Gallardo: Conceptualization  (equal);  Data  curation  (equal);  Formal  analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal), Validation (equal); Writing – original draft (lead); Writing – review  and  editing  (equal).  Jimena  López-Arrabé:  Formal  analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal); Writing  –  review  and  editing  (equal).  Javier  Pérez-Tris*: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Funding acquisition    (lead);    Investigation    (equal);    Methodology    (equal);  Project  administration  (equal);  Supervision  (equal);  Writing  –  review  and  editing  (equal).  Carolina  Remacha*: Conceptualization  (equal);  Data  curation  (equal);  Formal  analysis    (equal);    Investigation    (equal);    Methodology    (equal);  Project  administration  (equal);  Supervision  (equal);  Validation (equal); Writing – review and editing (equal).
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Ministerio de Universidades (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 24 abr 2025