A combination of PCR methods provide different information on the status of Haemosporidian parasites in a diverse bird community of Western Ghats

Methods used to identify apicomplexan blood parasites have undergone a paradigm shift from conventional microscopy to more sensitive PCR based approaches such as the Nested PCR and Multiplex PCR. However, a very recent study indicates an underrepresentation of infection using either of the methods alone compared to a combination of the methods. Here we extend this study to a community-level analysis using blood samples of randomly sampled bird diversity of Western Ghats. The results were consistent with our prediction that a combination of both methods yields a more reliable infection status.