Abstract
Mammalian haemosporidian parasites are classified in ten genera, including Plasmodium, Hepatocystis and Nycteria. A high diversity of haemosporidian parasites has been described from bats, but our understanding of their prevalence, distribution and use of hosts remain fragmented. The haemosporidian parasites of bats in Cameroon have been largely understudied, but here, bats, sampled from different habitat types of the Central Region of Cameroon, were investigated for haemosporidian infections with a combination of microscopic and molecular phylogenetic analysis. An overall prevalence of 18.1% of haemosporidian infections was detected in a total of 155 investigated bats belonging to 14 bat species. For the first time Hepatocystis and Nycteria parasites were detected in bats from Cameroon and molecularly characterized. Hepatocystis infections were exclusively identified in the epauletted fruit bat host species Epomophorus pusillus with a high prevalence of 65.5%, whereas Nycteria infections could be detected in several hosts, namely: Doryrhina cyclops (60.0%), Rhinolophus landeri (20.0%) and one Nycteris grandis. This study unveils evidence that habitat types may play a role in transmission of Hepatocystis parasites on a local scale and it adds important information on the distribution and host specificity of the neglected haemosporidian genus Nycteria.
Highlights
IntroductionHaemosporidian parasites (phylum Apicomplexa) infect a wide range of mammals including primates, rodents and bats (Garnham, 1966)
Haemosporidian parasites infect a wide range of mammals including primates, rodents and bats (Garnham, 1966)
This study presents a survey of haemosporidian parasite infections in different bat species in the central region of Cameroon and determines the prevalence, parasitaemia and phylogenetic relationships of haemosporidian infections in bats
Summary
Haemosporidian parasites (phylum Apicomplexa) infect a wide range of mammals including primates, rodents and bats (Garnham, 1966). The human-infecting Plasmodium species belong to a large group of haemosporidian parasites of about 500 closely related species (Martinsen and Perkins, 2013; Galen et al, 2018). These parasites use a diverse array of dipteran and vertebrate hosts to complete their life cycle, the latter comprising birds, saurian reptiles and mammals (Garnham, 1966; Levine, 1988). A broader sampling and systematic analysis of bat malaria parasites is essential for better understanding the evolutionary history of haemosporidian parasites, including the human-infecting species (Perkins and Schaer, 2016)
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