<i>Plasmodium</i> infections of red‐billed gulls ( <i>Larus scopulinus</i> ) show associations with host condition but not reproductive performance
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract High prevalence of Plasmodium infection in some non‐native bird species in New Zealand, coupled with distributional expansion of the introduced mosquito vector Culex quinquefasciatus , has raised concerns that immunologically naïve native species might be increasingly at risk from malarial parasites. We combined polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of archived blood samples with long‐term field data of red‐billed gulls ( Larus scopulinus ) at Kaikoura Peninsula to estimate the prevalence of malarial infection and its effect upon host condition and breeding success. Plasmodium prevalence assessed with PCR was 7.8±3.4%, 10‐fold greater than estimates from microscopic analysis of blood smears (c. 0.7%, Tompkins et al. 2010). Phylogenetic analysis of parasite cytochrome b sequences isolated from red‐billed gulls indicates that lineage RBG1 falls within a clade containing P. cathemerium morphospecies, whereas RBG2, isolated from a single individual, clusters with P. elongatum . We show that red‐billed gulls infected with Plasmodium have bred at Kaikoura dating back to at least 1992, that chronic infections of lineage RBG1 are maintained over several years in some individuals, and that infection is associated with decreased body condition in breeding individuals of both sexes. There is currently no evidence that Plasmodium infection is associated with reduced breeding performance. However, further study involving the ecological context and temporal dynamics of infection is needed to assess cumulative effects on lifetime reproductive success.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".