Abstract
BackgroundBats are home to diverse haemosporidian parasites namely Plasmodium and Plasmodium-related. While information is available at a worldwide level, haemosporidian infection in bats from Madagascar is still scarce and recent changes in the taxonomy of the island’s bat fauna, particularly the description of several new species, require a reassessment of previously described patterns, including blood parasite ecology and vectorial transmission.MethodsA sample representing seven of the nine known bat families and 31 of the 46 currently recognized taxa from Madagascar and collected in the western and central portions of the island were screened by PCR for the presence of Polychromophilus. In addition, Nycteribiidae flies parasitizing Miniopteridae and Vespertilionidae were screened for parasites with the aim to better understand aspects of vector transmission. Phylogenetic reconstruction using the mitochondrial cytochrome b encoding gene was used in a Bayesian analysis to examine the relationship between Polychromophilus recovered from Malagasy bats and those identified elsewhere.ResultsPolychromophilus infection was restricted to Miniopterus spp. (Miniopteridae), Myotis goudoti (Vespertilionidae), and Paratriaenops furculus (Rhinonycteridae), with an overall infection rate of 13.5%. Polychromophilus melanipherus was found infecting Miniopterus spp. and P. furculus, whereas Polychromophilus murinus was only recovered from M. goudoti. These two protozoan parasites species were also detected in bat flies species known to parasitize Miniopterus spp. and M. goudoti, respectively. Generalized linear model analyses were conducted to elucidate the effect of species and sex on haemoparasites infection in Miniopterus spp., which revealed that males have higher risk of infection than females and prevalence differed according to the considered Miniopterus host. Molecular screening of nycteribiid flies revealed three positive species for Polychromophilus spp., including Penicillidia sp. (cf. fulvida), Penicillidia leptothrinax, and Nycteribia stylidiopsis. These three fly species are known to parasitize Miniopterus spp. and M. goudoti and should be considered as potential vectors of Polychromophilus spp.ConclusionPhylogenetic analyses demonstrated the existence of at least four distinct clades within the genus Polychromophilus, two of which were documented in the present study. The screening of nycteribiid flies overlaid on the highly diversified genus Miniopterus, provides considerable insight into parasite transmission, with bat infection being associated with their roosting behaviour and the occurrence of specific arthropod vectors.
Highlights
Bats are home to diverse haemosporidian parasites namely Plasmodium and Plasmodium-related
Different morphological characters associated with the taxonomy of bat malarial parasites have been previously published [13,14,15,16], and their systematics as well as species diversity have been clarified through molecular approaches [6, 9, 17, 18]
Sampling sites and techniques Fifty-two sites were visited from February 2012 to March 2013 in different areas of Madagascar to sample bats associated with taxonomic studies [25], ecology and distribution [27], as well as hosted ectoparasite and microparasites [30,31,32,33]
Summary
Bats are home to diverse haemosporidian parasites namely Plasmodium and Plasmodium-related. The genus Plasmodium has been documented in different vertebrate groups, such as reptiles, birds and mammals, including nonhuman primates, based on morphological and molecular studies [1, 5, 6]. Far, based on morphological and molecular studies, eight genera of haemosporidian parasites are recognized to infect bats: Biguetiella, Dionisia, Hepatocystis, Johnsprentia, Nycteria, Plasmodium, Polychromophilus and Sprattiella [6, 8, 10, 15, 16, 18, 19]. With regards to the genus Polychromophilus, two species, Polychromophilus melanipherus and Polychromophilus murinus, were originally described from Miniopterus schreibersii and Vespertilio murinus, respectively [20] These two haemosporidian taxa are known to infect bats belonging to the Miniopteridae and Vespertilionidae in Africa and Europe [9, 17]. Parasites infecting Myotis spp., Eptesicus fuscus and V. murinus have been placed within the genus Bioccala, formerly recognized as a subgenus of Polychromophilus [16, 21]; this has yet to be verified based on molecular studies
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