Bird-Malaria Coevolution

My past and current research has dedicated substantial attention to blood parasites of birds, i.e. avian malaria and their close relatives. Although our understanding of these organisms has strongly grown in the last decades there are still many facets of their ecology and coevolution with the hosts which we understand insufficiently.

In this respect knowing about a few models species out of several thousand evolutionary lineages from belonging to multiple genera can be seductive but misleading. I therefore concentrate on one population in particular while checking if the patterns apply in other populations, species and host-parasite coevolution groups. This has led me to study parasites in diverse raptors, ravens with quite raptor-like ecology and in diverse other birds.

In order to understand their population dynamics and potential virulence I have developed microsatellites and various genomic markers for Leucocytozoon. In recent years I  also dedicate some extra attention to the vectors, Simulium blackflies. We still don't know if Leucocytozoon and raptors can be considered foes or friends. These might be among the closest analogs to what some parents benevolently call "childhood diseases".