Avian Malaria - How the infection frequency of Avian Malaria has changed over the past 20 years
(2022) MOBK01 20212Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
- Popular Abstract
- We all live with Malaria - We just don’t know it
Malaria is one of the world's biggest healthcare obstacles, taking the lives of millions and costing us millions. But what is Malaria? Malaria is an organism, more precisely a parasite, living at the expense of another organism. Even though the majority of humans have never had it, we have probably only been a few hundred meters away from individuals carrying it. They fly around in the sky and come in different variations: Birds. There is no need to worry since Bird Malaria does not infect humans, rather it is the cousin of the malaria that infects humans.
In the winter time, when birds migrate to the more tropical places, they get infected. When the seasons change, they come back and... (More) - We all live with Malaria - We just don’t know it
Malaria is one of the world's biggest healthcare obstacles, taking the lives of millions and costing us millions. But what is Malaria? Malaria is an organism, more precisely a parasite, living at the expense of another organism. Even though the majority of humans have never had it, we have probably only been a few hundred meters away from individuals carrying it. They fly around in the sky and come in different variations: Birds. There is no need to worry since Bird Malaria does not infect humans, rather it is the cousin of the malaria that infects humans.
In the winter time, when birds migrate to the more tropical places, they get infected. When the seasons change, they come back and spread the disease to the non-infected birds. Though it is one factor for the spread of the disease. Black flies, which are known vectors of the parasites, are also native to that region indicating spread of the disease irregardless of them migrating or not.
The method for studying these birds is to take a small blood sample and analyze it to see if they are infected or not. Analyzing the blood samples is achived with a technique which revolutionized the field of biology, a technique known as PCR. By providing the necessary building blocks we are able to create an enormous amount of Malaria DNA from just a little sample. By doing that for each bird over a long period of time, we are able to track and see how parasites have evolved, but also the relation between new Bird Malaria species. Studying the evolution and relationship of the Avian Malaria parasites may give us direct insight on how human Malaria has evolved, and how we can find a solution to the problem.
The results of this study have shown that there is a significant difference in the frequency of infected birds and a significant difference between adult infected birds and infant infected birds over a period of 20. With the data in the beginning indicating an equal distribution between the infected birds and non-infected birds, but with time, and more birds were analyzed, the overall infection rate has decreased. The reason for the decrease in infection frequency over time is not yet known, but one can speculate that it is related to the slow rising of global temperature making the environment inhospitable for the vectors (black flies and mosquitoes).
Supervisor: Olof Hellgren
Bachelor thesis in Molecular Biology, 15 HP Date: 12-01-2022
Institution: Lunds university Department of Ecology
Department if Molecular Ecology and Evolution (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9077612
- author
- Moradi, Saleh Sadegh
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MOBK01 20212
- year
- 2022
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9077612
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-24 15:50:18
- date last changed
- 2022-03-24 15:50:18
@misc{9077612,
author = {{Moradi, Saleh Sadegh}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Avian Malaria - How the infection frequency of Avian Malaria has changed over the past 20 years}},
year = {{2022}},
}