PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 94: Pathogens, Toxins, and Disease III.
Presiding: C Duffie
Friday, August 8. 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM, SITCC Meeting Room 200.

The effects of predation and disease on the evolution of resistance to malaria in Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidinae).

Kilpatrick, A. Marm^*,1, ¹ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

ABSTRACT- The response of a population to selective pressure is strongly influenced by other sources of mortality which may act orthogonally to the selective agent. In the case of predation and disease, the evolution of resistance may be stymied by non-selective predation, or even halted by a predation-disease interaction. I combined field data with a model to examine the evolution of resistance to avian malaria in Hawaiian honeycreepers. The results offer insight into which species might be expected to evolve resistance to malaria and what can be done to facilitate the evolution of resistance. Predation can have a significant role in altering the temporal course, and in some circumstances the outcome, of resistance evolution. The results I will present have broad applicability to other disease-host interactions, especially recently introduced or emerging infectious diseases.

Key words: model, disease, Hawaiian birds, conservation