Impact of host stress on the replication rate of Plasmodium: Take it easy to avoid malaria recurrence

This dataset is associated with a study where we explored the impact of increasing the concentration of corticosterone in the blood of birds on the within-host infection dynamic of malaria parasite (i.e. Plasmodium relictum). The birds were in a chronic stage of infection. We manipulated the corticosterone concentration of the birds either artificially (corticosterone ingestion, experiment 1) or naturally (handling stress, experiment 2). We also exposed treated and controlled birds to mosquitoes to determine if increased stress hormone levels in vertebrate hosts impacted Plasmodium transmission. We conducted a third experiment to study the impact of mosquito bites on stress hormone levels in vertebrate hosts.