Natural infection by Procyrnea uncinipenis (Nematoda, Habronematidae), a parasite from rheas, an autoctone bird from South America, in emus Dromaius novaehollandiae, a ratite from New Zealand

Nicole Brand Ederli,Francisco Carlos Rodrigues De Oliveira,Samira Salim Mello Gallo

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73754-1

Nicole Brand Ederli, Francisco Carlos Rodrigues De Oliveira + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73754-1

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Abstract

The present study reports a natural infection of emus, Dromaius novaehollandiae, by the nematode Procyrnea uncinipenis. Five adult emus from a scientific breeding farm at North Fluminense State University located in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil were necropsied, and their gastrointestinal tract were collected and examined for the presence of parasites from October 2013 to November 2015. Two of the five (40%) emus necropsied were infected with nematodes, and a portion of the nematodes were processed for light microscopy. In addition, two other nematodes (a male and a female) were prepared for scanning electron microscopy. In a female bird, one nematode was collected in the proventriculus and two nematodes in the gizzard and in the male bird four nematodes were collected in the gizzard. The morphological and morphometric analyzes allowed to identify the nematodes as P. uncinipenis, this being the first report of an infection by P. uncinipenis in emus. Therefore, we infer that these emus were naturally infected by nematodes that were considered specific to rheas.

Highlights

There are two species of rheas in South America, the greater rhea, Rhea americana Linnaeus, 1758, and the lesser rhea, Rhea pennatta (d’Orbigny 1834)
The present study reports a natural infection of emus, D. novaehollandiae, by the nematode P. uncinipenis
The morphology, observed by light and scanning electron microscopy, and the morphometry of the nematodes collected from D. novaehollandiae are similar to those of the nematode species that infect R. americana in South America, P. uncinipenis, which shows that this exotic bird can host this parasite from rheas, a native bird of the continent

Summary

Introduction

There are two species of rheas in South America, the greater rhea, Rhea americana Linnaeus, 1758, and the lesser rhea, Rhea pennatta (d’Orbigny 1834). R. americana has been of increased interest for farming since the 1990s, receiving attention in South America, North America and E urope[1] This species is composed of five subspecies distributed in South America: R. americana americana (northeastern to southeastern Brazil), R. americana intermedia (southeastern Brazil and Uruguay), R. americana nobilis (eastern Paraguay), R. americana araneipes (western Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, and southwestern Brazil) and R. americana albescens (northeastern and eastern Argentina)[2]. These birds are found in open and stream a reas[3], and the presence of parasitic infections in these species is common, those caused by the nematodes Procyrnea uncinipenis (Molin, 1860) and Deletrocephalus dimidiatus Diesing, 1851, Deletrocephalus cesarpintoi Vaz, 1936 and Paradeletrocephalus minor (Molin, 1861)[4,5], both of which are considered host-specific. The present study reports a natural infection of emus, D. novaehollandiae, by the nematode P. uncinipenis

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