BackgroundHaemoproteus and Plasmodium species are widespread avian blood parasites. Several Plasmodium species are known for their high virulence and have caused significant declines in naive bird populations. The impact of closely related Haemoproteus parasites is largely unknown. Recently we reported a lethal disease in two parrot aviaries caused by Haemoproteus parasites.ResultsHere we show that the causative pathogen Haemoproteus minutus is responsible for further 17 lethal outbreaks in parrot aviaries in Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. All affected parrots are endemic to Australasia and South America. We sequenced the cytochrome b gene from megalomeront-infected muscle tissue of 21 parrots and identified the two lineages TUPHI01 and TURDUS2 as causative agents, commonly naturally infecting the common blackbird (Turdus merula) and the song thrush (Turdus philomelos), respectively, in the Palaearctic. No intraerythrocytic parasite stages were found in any of the parrots. We failed to detect H. minutus in invasive Indian ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in Germany. Together this suggests that abortive infections with two virulent lineages of H. minutus are lethal for naive parrot species from Australasia and South America. We asked whether we could detect H. minutus in New Zealand, where its Turdus hosts were introduced in the 1800s. We therefore tested invasive blackbirds and song thrushes, and the co-existing endemic red-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) population on three New Zealand islands. No Haemoproteus spp. DNA was detected in all blood samples, indicating absence of transmission.ConclusionsThe results of this study show that captive parrots in Europe are threatened by two lineages of an otherwise benign parasite of Turdus spp. Aviary collections of parrots should be protected from Culicoides spp. vectors in Europe. Animal trade and climate changes extending the current vector and parasite distribution have to be considered as potential risk factors for the introduction of the disease in naive parrot populations.
1.Massey Univ, Inst Nat & Math Sci, North Shore Mail Ctr, Private Bag 102904, Auckland 0745, New Zealand 2.Int Zoo Vet Grp, Stn House,Parkwood St, Keighley BD21 4NQ, England 3.Univ Nottingham, Sch Vet Med & Sci, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough LE12 5RD, Leics, England 4.Ayr Dis Surveillance Ctr, Ayr KA6 5AE, Scotland 5.Berlin Brandenburg State Lab, Gerhard Neumann Str 2, D-15236 Frankfurt, Oder, Germany 6.Heidelberg Univ, Inst Pharm & Mol Biotechnol, Neuenheimer Feld 364, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany 7.Gerlach Lab, Grosshessloher Str 23, D-81479 Munich, Germany 8.Pendl Lab, Untere Roostmatt 7, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland 9.Free Univ Berlin, Inst Vet Pathol, Robert von Ostertag Str 15, D-14163 Berlin, Germany 10.Zool Soc London, Inst Zool, Regents Pk, London NW1 4RY, England 11.Univ Complutense Madrid, Fac Biol, Dept Biodiversidad Ecol & Evoluc, Planta 9,C Jose Antonio Novais,2 Ciudad Univ, E-28040 Madrid, Spain 12.Nat Res Ctr, Inst Ecol, Akad Str 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania 13.Univ Bern, Inst Anim Pathol, Langgassstr 122, CH-3063 Bern, Switzerland
Recommended Citation:
Ortiz-Catedral, Luis,Brunton, Dianne,Stidworthy, Mark F.,et al. Haemoproteus minutus is highly virulent for Australasian and South American parrots[J]. PARASITES & VECTORS,2019-01-01,12