<i>Lankesterella</i> (Apicomplexa, Lankesterellidae) Blood Parasites of Passeriform Birds: Prevalence, Molecular and Morphological Characterization, with Notes on Sporozoite Persistence In Vivo and Development In Vitro
Carolina Romeiro Fernandes Chagas | Josef Harl | Vytautas Preikša | Dovilė Bukauskaitė | Mikas Ilgūnas | Herbert Weissenböck | Gediminas Valkiūnas
Recent studies confirmed that some <i>Hepatozoon</i>-like blood parasites (Apicomplexa) of birds are closely related to the amphibian parasite <i>Lankesterella minima</i>. Little is known about the biology of these pathogens in birds, including their distribution, life cycles, specificity, vectors, and molecular characterization. Using blood samples of 641 birds from 16 species, we (i) determined the prevalence and molecular diversity of <i>Lankesterella</i> parasites in naturally infected birds; (ii) investigated the development of <i>Lankesterella kabeeni</i> in laboratory-reared mosquitoes, <i>Culex pipiens</i> forma <i>molestus</i> and <i>Aedes aegypti</i>; and (iii) tested experimentally the susceptibility of domestic canaries, <i>Serinus canaria</i>, to this parasite. This study combined molecular and morphological diagnostic methods and determined 11% prevalence of <i>Lankesterella</i> parasites in Acrocephalidae birds; 16 <i>Lankesterella</i> lineages with a certain degree of host specificity and two new species (<i>Lankesterella vacuolata</i> n. sp. and <i>Lankesterella macrovacuolata</i> n. sp.) were found and characterized. <i>Lankesterella kabeeni</i> (formerly <i>Hepatozoon kabeeni</i>) was re-described. <i>Serinus canaria</i> were resistant after various experimental exposures. <i>Lankesterella</i> sporozoites rapidly escaped from host cells in vitro. Sporozoites persisted for a long time in infected mosquitoes (up to 42 days post exposure). Our study demonstrated a high diversity of <i>Lankesterella</i> parasites in birds, and showed that several avian <i>Hepatozoon</i>-like parasites, in fact, belong to <i>Lankesterella</i> genus.
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