Diversidad de patógenos en aves silvestres neotropicalesestrategias de descubrimiento e identificación del papel de las especies hospedadoras

Abstract

With this PhD thesis, we want to shed some light on the field of pathogens circulating in wildlife, more specifically, in wild birds. In a global context where pathogen transmission among wildlife, domestic animals and humans is higher than ever before, studies following a discovery-driven approach are essential for human health and biodiversity conservation. However, with some exceptions, few pathogens have been studied in wild birds. In our research, we have focused on two important groups of pathogens carried by this group of animals: viruses and haemosporidians, two models that allow different perspectives in the study of avian pathogens, from discovery to ecological function. Furthermore, we want to highlight the value of remote regions as sources of novel information about pathogen diversity and discovery-driven approaches as essential tools for their study. To this end, we sampled the understory community of wild birds in a tropical rainforest of the Nouragues Natural Reserve (French Guiana) and we analyzed its cloacal virome and the community of haemosporidians infecting them. The general objective of this PhD thesis is to highlight how discovery-driven research on pathogens of wildlife living in remote regions contributes substantially to expand the knowledge in the fields of virology and parasitology. With this information, we will improve the understanding of the diversity, host range, ecology and prevalence of both cloacal viruses and haemosporidians infecting birds from Nouragues. Therefore, the four main objectives of this thesis can be summarized in biodiscovery, screening of pathogens in Guianan birds, highlight remote regions and non-traditional hosts as sources of relevant new information in viral discovery and the analysis of avian malaria parasites in Nouragues...