Blood Parasites and Wildlife: The Development of a Discipline.

Abstract

In the last 30 years, the area of the study of parasitism caused by blood parasite infections on wildlife has suffered an extraordinary transformation. We will review here some of the advances produced in three specific aspects: (1) Taxonomy; this field has been profoundly transformed, moving from microscopy to molecular analyses and phylogeny. (2) Impact of infections on wildlife fitness; from an initial position in which it was understood that infections by blood parasites had little or no effect on their hosts, we have moved on to the experimental demonstration of important effects on the fitness of individuals. (3) Distribution of blood parasite infections; the distribution across latitudinal and altitudinal gradients as well as the different effects of anthropic activities on the incidence of blood parasite infections have been developed importantly during the last few years. Finally, we will look at the promising future of this discipline by pointing out some developing fields of research.