Summarizes the work carried out over more than a hundred years of research on bird haemosporidians. For a long time, bird blood parasites served as important models in studying human diseases, including malaria. Although largely replaced as models of human disease, the wealth of data and research remained. As ecologists and evolutionary biologists sought models to illustrate their theories, avian haemotozoa provided some of the best existing databases.
GENERAL SECTIONBrief Historical SummaryLife Cycle and MorphologyA Brief Outline of the UltrastructureSpecificity and General Principles of Species IdentificationPathogenicityDistributionCertain Peculiarities of the Ecological Study of Bird ParasitesThe Role of Seasonal Migrations in the Distribution of Bird HaemosporidiansSeasonal Peculiarities of Birds InfectionAge Peculiarities of Birds InfectionBiotic Factors Influencing the Probability of Birds InfectionHaemosporidians as Biological Tags in Bird Population StudiesHaemosporidians as Objects for Analysis in the Evolutionary and Population Biology of BirdsRelapsesPeculiarities of ImmunityPrevention and TreatmentTaxonomy and ClassificationOrigin and PhylogenyPractical ImportanceMethods of Collection and InvestigationMethods of Species Identification and Recommendations for their DescriptionSYSTEMATIC SECTIONGeneral RemarksSystematic Index of SpeciesOrder HaemosporidaFamily HaemoproteidaeFamily PlasmodiidaeFamily GarniidaeFamily LeucocytozoidaeAppendix 1Appendix 2ReferencesIndex of Latin NamesColour Plates