Pathogen-driven gastrointestinal microbiota in passerines: anthropogenic environments as a model.

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium could be the cause of fatal septicaemia in wild birds. The general hypothesis of this project is that birds living in urban, suburban and rural regions may locally adapt to increased pathogen pressure through GI microbial composition alteration which, in turn, reduces the pathogen’s virulence. This hypothesis will be investigated in field populations of house sparrows along urbanization gradients.