Blood parasites in Passeriformes in central Germany: prevalence and lineage diversity of Haemosporida (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon) in six common songbirds.

Yvonne R Schumm,Petra Quillfeldt,Anna Bentele,Christine Wecker,Carina Marek,Hermann Willems,Gerald Reiner,Mareike Wassmuth

doi:10.7717/peerj.6259

Abstract

BackgroundAvian Haemosporida are vector-borne parasites that commonly infect Passeriformes. Molecular analyses revealed a high number of different lineages and lineage specific traits like prevalence and host-specificity, but knowledge of parasite prevalence and lineage diversity in wild birds in Central Germany is still lacking.ResultsBlood samples from a total of 238 adult and 122 nestling songbirds belonging to six species were investigated for infections with avian haemosporidian genera and lineages (Haemoproteus spp., Plasmodium spp., Leucocytozoon spp.) and Trypanosoma avium using PCR, targeting the parasite mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and 18S ribosomal RNA. In total, the prevalence in adult birds was 31.3% infected with Haemoproteus, 12.5% with Plasmodium and 71.0% with Leucocytozoon (nestlings excluded). None of the tested birds was infected with Trypanosoma avium. Only in two nestling birds, aged 12–17 days, a Leucocytozoon spp. infection was proven. Among 225 successfully sequenced samples, we found four Haemoproteus, three Plasmodium and 19 Leucocytozoon lineages, including two new Leucocytozoon lineages. Furthermore, we report two new host-lineage associations.ConclusionsAs first study investigating avian haemosporidian parasites in Central Germany, we provide new information on genetic diversity of Haemosporida infecting Passeriformes. We show that even with a small sample size new lineages as well as previously unknown linkages between certain lineages and host species can be detected. This may help to elucidate the diversity of lineages as well as lineage-host-connections of avian Haemosporida.

Highlights

Avian blood parasites (Hematozoa) infect both domestic and wild birds, and they have been objects of intensive scientific research over a long period (Valkiunas, 1996; Valkiunas, 2005; Bensch et al, 2013)
Haemosporida are generally considered as pathogens with a low pathogenicity and harmless in bird populations (Wiersch et al, 2007; Ciloglu et al, 2016), but several studies demonstrated different costs on life-history traits associated with Haemosporida infections: Haemosporidian parasites can affect the body condition (Valkiunas et al, 2006), reproductive success (e.g., Hunter, Rohner & Currie, 1997; Merino et al, 2000; Marzal et al, 2005; Tomás et al, 2007a; Knowles, Palinauskas & Sheldon, 2010) and the survival (e.g., Dawson & Bortolotti, 2000; Møller & Nielsen, 2007; Donovan et al, 2008; Bueno et al, 2010)
Coal tits were infected with Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon and tree sparrows with Plasmodium and Haemoproteus

Summary

Introduction

Avian blood parasites (Hematozoa) infect both domestic and wild birds, and they have been objects of intensive scientific research over a long period (Valkiunas, 1996; Valkiunas, 2005; Bensch et al, 2013). These avian Haemosporida belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa share a similar but complex life cycle (Schmid et al, 2017), including asexual stages of reproduction in a bird host and sexual stages within a vector (Valkiunas, 2005; Santiago-Alarcon, Palinauskas & Schaefer, 2012). Blood samples from a total of 238 adult and 122 nestling songbirds belonging to six species were investigated for infections with avian haemosporidian genera and lineages (Haemoproteus spp., Plasmodium spp., Leucocytozoon spp.) and Trypanosoma avium using PCR, targeting the parasite mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and 18S ribosomal RNA. This may help to elucidate the diversity of lineages as well as lineage-host-connections of avian Haemosporida

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