Close relationship of sequences detected from South American pampas deer () to spp. in North American white-tailed deer.

We report, for the first time, the presence of ungulate malaria parasites in South America. We conducted PCR-based surveys of blood samples of multiple deer species and water buffalo from Brazil and detected sequences from pampas deer () samples. Phylogenic analysis revealed that the obtained sequences are closely related to the clade 2 sequence from North American white-tailed deer (). Nucleotide differences suggest that malaria parasites in South American pampas deer and North American clade 2 branched more recently than the Great American Interchange.