@misc{10481/75413,
year = {2022},
month = {1},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/75413},
abstract = {Anthropogenic activities such as intensification of agriculture, animal husbandry and expansion of cities can negatively
impact wildlife through its influence on the availability of high-quality food resources and pathogen transmission.
The house sparrow (Passer domesticus), an urban exploiter, is undergoing a population decline. Nutritional
constrains and infectious diseases has been highlighted as potential causes. Fatty acids (FAs) play an important role
in modulating certain immune responses needed to combat parasite infections. FAs are highly influenced by dietary
availability and have been shown to vary between urban and rural birds. Habitat anthropization also affects avianmalaria
epidemiology but little attention has been given to the relationship between blood parasite infection, host FAs
composition and anthropization. Here, we analysed 165 juvenile birds either infected by Plasmodium or uninfected,
captured at 15 localities grouped in triplets containing urban, rural and natural habitats. The total level of FAs was
higher in birds fromurban than from rural habitats, suggesting a greater availability of fat-rich foods sources. Furthermore,
Plasmodium infected birds had higher relative levels of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) but lower of ω-6
PUFAs than uninfected birds. In concordance, the ω-6/ω-3 ratiowas also lower in infected than in uninfected birds, but
only from natural habitats, likely driven by the slightly higher ω-3 PUFAs in infected birds from natural habitats. Birds
from anthropized environments may metabolize the ω-3 PUFAs to promote anti-inflammatory responses against
stressors, which would result in lower ω-3 affecting their response against Plasmodium. Alternatively, lower ω-6 PUFAs may influence birds susceptibility to infection due to a weaker pro-inflammatory response. These descriptive
results do not allow us to identify the causality of these associations but highlight the need to further investigate the
relevance of FAs for birds to fight infectious diseases in habitats with different degree of urbanization.},
organization = {Junta de Andalucia	P11-RNM-7038},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European (FEDER) funds	PGC2018-095704-B-I00	
PID2020-118205GB-I00},
organization = {Swedish Research Council Formas	2015-00526},
organization = {Fundacion Tatiana Perez Guzman el Bueno},
organization = {European Commission	844285},
publisher = {Elsevier},
keywords = {Avian malaria},
keywords = {Immune responses},
keywords = {Passer domesticus},
keywords = {PUFA},
keywords = {Omega-3},
keywords = {Omega-6},
title = {Differences in fatty acids composition between Plasmodium infected and uninfected house sparrows along an urbanization gradient},
doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152664},
author = {Jiménez Peñuela, Jéssica and Martínez de la Puente, Josué},
}