Bird Tissues from Museum Collections Are Reliable for Assessing Avian Haemosporidian Diversity.

Bird Tissues from Museum Collections Are Reliable for Assessing Avian Haemosporidian Diversity. J Parasitol. 2019 Jun;105(3):446-453 Authors: Fecchio A, Collins MD, Bell JA, García-Trejo EA, Sánchez-González LA, Dispoto JH, Rice NH, Weckstein JD Abstract Birds harbor a diverse group of haemosporidian parasites that reproduce and develop in the host blood cells, muscle tissue, and various organs, which can cause negative effects on the survival and reproduction of their avian hosts. Characterization of the diversity, distribution, host specificity, prevalence patterns, and phylogenetic relationships of these parasites is critical to the study of avian host-parasite ecology and evolution and for understanding and preventing epidemics in wild bird populations. Here, we tested whether muscle and liver samples collected as part of standard ornithological museum expeditions can be examined to study the diversity and distributions of haemosporidians in the same way as blood collected from individual birds that are typically banded and released. We used a standard molecular diagnostic screening method for mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome b) of the parasites and found that blood, muscle, and liver collected from the same host individual provide similar estimates of prevalence and diversity of haemosporidians from the genera Parahaemoproteus and Leucocytozoon. Although we found higher prevalence for the genus Plasmodium when we screened blood ...
Source: The Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: J Parasitol Source Type: research