Abstract
Free-living Columbidae are considered the second largest reservoir of Chlamydia psittaci, transmitting the agent to humans and other animals. The present study aimed to identify the presence of Chlamydia spp. in samples of lung and stool collected from free-living domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) captured at the Mangal das Garças Naturalistic Park in Belém, Pará, Brazil, using semi-nested polymerase chain reaction, and also correlate the clinical and post-mortem findings of animals positive for Chlamydia spp. Among the 45 animals analyzed, 10 (22.2%) were positive for Chlamydia spp.; the positive findings originated from 5 (50%) lung samples and 5 (50%) stool samples, with no overlap between animals and samples. None of the animals evaluated in this study showed clinical signs of chlamydiosis; rather, these were only found during necropsy of positive animals, mainly through pulmonary, hepatic, splenic, and intestinal changes. These findings demonstrate that free-living pigeons can be reservoirs of Chlamydia spp. and transmit the agent silently to humans and animals, which is concerning for public and animal health, since these birds are easily found in urban areas cohabitating with humans, other species of birds, and other animals.
Highlights
The genus Chlamydia is comprised of obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria, responsible for causing systemic disease in animals and humans (Raso, 2014)
The present study aimed to identify the presence of Chlamydia spp. in lung and stool samples collected from free-living domestic pigeons, captured at Mangal das Garças Naturalistic Park in Belém, Pará, Brazil, through seminested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), as well as to correlate the clinical and post-mortem findings of positive animals
None of the animals evaluated in this study showed clinical signs of Chlamydia spp. during the external inspection
Summary
The genus Chlamydia is comprised of obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria, responsible for causing systemic disease in animals and humans (Raso, 2014). Free-living domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) are common carriers of Chlamydia spp., releasing the bacteria intermittently in the environment regardless of the development of symptoms (Sachse et al, 2012). The presence of these birds in squares, streets, public buildings, open markets, zoo botanical parks, and in rural areas, cohabitating with humans and other domestic or free-living birds, represents a great risk to public and animal health (Burt et al, 2018)
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