Macroparasites of introduced parakeets in Italy: a possible role for parasite-mediated competition (vol 113, pg 3277, 2015)

Alien species are considered a cause of biodiversityloss throughout the world. An important but often overlookedform of competition with native species is the parasitemediatedone. Introduced species may bring their own parasitesfrom their native ranges (spillover) or get native parasitesfrom native species, thus increasing the parasites' spread andtransmission risk (spillback). Thus, a complete knowledge ofparasites hosted by introduced species is important to assessand to possibly prevent impacts. Ring-necked and monkparakeets have been introduced in many European countries,where they established a number of alien reproductive populations.We sampled 21 ring-necked parakeets and 7 monkparakeets from Italy and identified 35 arthropod ectoparasitesbelonging to five species. Amongst those, one species wasnative to India (Neopsittaconirmus lybartota), where alienpopulations of ring-necked parakeet may have been originated,and one species from South America (Paragoniocotesfulvofasciatus), which is typically found of the monk parakeetin its native range. The other three species of arthropod parasiteswere native to Italy and commonly found on native species,suggesting the possibility of spillback processes.