People - Graduate Students

Mari Kimura (Cornell Ph.D. student) is interested in geographic variation in blood parasite prevalence in House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus). According to published blood smear analyses, prevalence is higher in the northern than the southern part of the range. Mari is revisiting this question using PCR screening, which is better able to detect low-level chronic infections than blood smear examination. She is sampling insect vectors as well as avian hosts at several sites across the native and introduced range of the House Finch to determine the relative importance of vector availability on patterns of prevalence.

Mari Kimura and Dana Hawley catching House Finches in the wilderness of suburban California.

Mari holding a house finch while Dana swabs its eye to test for the presence of Mycoplasma gallisepticum.

She is also interested in the geographic distribution of parasite lineages, particularly whether native and introduced populations of House Finches harbor different parasite lineages. She is currently working with captive birds that have been experimentally infected with Mycoplasma gallisepticum (a bacterium causing conjunctivitis) to determine whether infection with blood parasites affects response to the bacterium.

photos courtesy of Ellis Myers