An outbreak of avian malaria in captive yellowheads/mohua (<i>Mohoua ochrocephala</i>)

Abstract

The mohua captured from west Otago were highly susceptible to avian malaria as they came from an isolated population that was likely to be naïve and have had no previous contact with this organism. The birds were probably infected by bites from mosquitoes feeding off local populations of blackbirds subsequently found to be infected with Plasmodium spp.