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Detecting transmission areas of malaria parasites in a migratory bird species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2015

LUZ GARCIA-LONGORIA ,
OLOF HELLGREN ,
STAFFAN BENSCH ,
FLORENTINO DE LOPE  and
ALFONSO MARZAL
LUZ GARCIA-LONGORIA*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain
OLOF HELLGREN
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab, Ecology Building, Lund University, SE- 22362 Lund, Sweden
STAFFAN BENSCH
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab, Ecology Building, Lund University, SE- 22362 Lund, Sweden
FLORENTINO DE LOPE
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain
ALFONSO MARZAL
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain. E-mail: luzlongoria@unex.es
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Summary

The identification of the regions where vector-borne diseases are transmitted is essential to study transmission patterns and to recognize future changes in environmental conditions that may potentially influence the transmission areas. SGS1, one of the lineages of Plasmodium relictum, is known to have active transmission in tropical Africa and temperate regions of Europe. Nuclear sequence data from isolates infected with SGS1 (based on merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) allelic diversity) have provided new insights on the distribution and transmission areas of these allelic variants. For example, MSP1 alleles transmitted in Africa differ from those transmitted in Europe, suggesting the existence of two populations of SGS1 lineages. However, no study has analysed the distribution of African and European transmitted alleles in Afro-Palearctic migratory birds. With this aim, we used a highly variable molecular marker to investigate whether juvenile house martins become infected in Europe before their first migration to Africa. We explored the MSP1 allelic diversity of P. relictum in adult and juvenile house martins. We found that juveniles were infected with SGS1 during their first weeks of life, confirming active transmission of SGS1 to house martins in Europe. Moreover, we found that all the juveniles and most of adults were infected with one European transmitted MSP1 allele, whereas two adult birds were infected with two African transmitted MSP1 alleles. These findings suggest that house martins are exposed to different strains of P. relictum in their winter and breeding quarters.

Keywords

avian malariaDelichon urbicajuvenilesMSP1Plasmodium relictum
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 142 , Issue 9 , August 2015 , pp. 1215 - 1220
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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