LIVING WITH PARASITES: AVIAN MALARIA, TELOMERE LENGTH AND LIFE HISTORY TRADE-OFFS
Popular Abstract in English Parasites and their host organisms have engaged in a desperate battle over millions of years to evolve strategies that enable continued survival of their respective species. Parasites require some key metabolites to be able to survive and reproduce inside the host that often results in damage to host, while host organisms attempt to limit or prevent this damage by severHaemosporidia is a well-studied group of parasites, which infect mammals, reptiles and birds and use blood sucking vectors for their transmission. By conducting natural population studies and experimental infections, We have been able to detect and quantify Haemosporidia from avian blood to investigate how these pathogens affect their avian hosts. We have used life history data of two long-term lo
