Haemosporidian parasites in the ash-breasted Sierra finch (): insights from an Andean dry forest population.

Haemosporidian genera , and , responsible for avian malarial infections, are highly diverse and have a wide range of health effects and predictors, depending on the host and its environmental context. Here, we present, for the first time, detailed information on the identity, prevalence and parasitaemia of haemosporidians and other haemoparasites that infect the ash-breasted Sierra finch, , in an Andean dry forest. We study the consequences of infection in the host body and health conditions and explore the environmental and intrinsic factors that influence infection status and parasitaemia. We conducted diagnoses by cytochrome b () sequencing and morphological identification, and estimated the levels of parasitaemia based on microscopy. We identified 6 lineages infecting . Two of them were new lineages: sp. GEPLE01 and GEPLE02. We also detected sp. ZOCAP08, sp. AMAVIR01, BAEBIC02 and ZONCAP15. By microscopy, we detected , , and other unidentified species of , , sp. and 1 microfilaria. We found no evidence of . Additionally, we detected several coinfections by sequencing and microscopy. The prevalence of haemosporidian infections was high (87.7%), and the mean parasitaemia was 61.65 infected cells per 10 000 erythrocytes examined. Prevalence and parasitaemia were higher for than for . sp. AMAVIR01 showed the highest prevalence (43.1%) and mean parasitaemia (94.39/10 000 erythrocytes) and might be associated with . Immature individuals showed a lower prevalence than adults, supporting previous findings.