A new study in Lithuania will seek to answer this question, funded by the European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA).
Dr. Carolina Chagas and her PhD student Claudio Navarrete were awarded a European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA) Small Grant for Wildlife Health Activities in Eastern Europe to develop the project Temporal trends in Leucocytozoon infection dynamics under global change scenario. The project will investigate how climate warming has influenced the diversity and transmission of blood parasites in wild birds over the past decade, using a unique archive of more than 1,200 bird blood samples collected in Lithuania between 2015 and 2025.
By combining molecular analyses, parasite identification, and statistical modelling, the research will assess long-term changes in parasite diversity, host associations, and infection dynamics in relation to rising temperatures. The project will provide valuable insights into how global environmental change is reshaping wildlife disease patterns, contributing to a better understanding of ecosystem health and the potential emergence of infectious diseases.
The EWDA Small Grants Programme supports innovative research in wildlife diseases and aims to foster collaboration and career development among early-career researchers. This award will strengthen ongoing research on avian haemosporidian parasites and highlights the importance of long-term biological sample collections for addressing contemporary questions in disease ecology and the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.
