Úngari Letícia Pereira, Santos André Luiz Quagliatto, O'Dwyer Lucia Helena, da Silva Maria Regina Lucas, Rodrigues Santos Thais Carneiro, da Cunha Maria Júlia Rodrigues, de Melo Costa Pinto Rogério, Cury Márcia Cristina
Laboratório de Sorologia e Biologia Molecular de Parasitos, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas-ICBIM, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia-UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
Instituto de Biociências, Campus de Botucatu, Departamento de Parasitologia, UNESP-Univ. Estadual Paulista, Distrito de Rubião Junior, Botucatu, São Paulo, 18618-689, Brazil.
Parasitol Res. 2018 Dec;117(12):3857-3865. doi: 10.1007/s00436-018-6092-3. Epub 2018 Sep 28.
Species of Hepatozoon are parasites frequently recorded in snakes. The species identification of this genus was based mostly on the gametocyte morphology and morphometric calculations. For more reliable results, molecular characterization, an initial step for the correct identification of Hepatozoon species, has been used. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and identification of Hepatozoon species in captive snakes from Brazil. To that end, morphological, morphometric, and molecular data were obtained. A total of 157 snakes; 128 venomous (Crotalus durissus) and 29 non-venomous (Epicrates crassus and Boa constrictor) were screened for Hepatozoon blood parasites. Using light microscopy, 20 (12.78%) snakes were found positive for Hepatozoon spp., of which 6/29 (20.7%) were non-venomous and 14/128 (10.9%) were venomous; all with low parasitemia. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), performed with the primers HepF300/Hep900, confirmed all 20 (100%) samples positive for hemogregarines. Species of Hepatozoon were identified from eight sequenced samples. Two previously described species, Hepatozoon cuestensis and Hepatozoon musa, were identified. The present study is the first to report H. musa within the snake hosts E. crassus and C. durrisus. In addition, a potentially new Hepatozoon species from B. constrictor was identified.
肝簇虫属的物种是在蛇类中经常被记录到的寄生虫。该属的物种鉴定主要基于配子体形态和形态测量计算。为了获得更可靠的结果，分子特征分析（这是正确鉴定肝簇虫属物种的第一步）已被采用。本研究旨在确定巴西圈养蛇类中肝簇虫属物种的流行情况并进行鉴定。为此，获取了形态学、形态测量学和分子数据。总共对157条蛇进行了筛查，其中128条有毒蛇（杜氏响尾蛇）和29条无毒蛇（粗鳞蚺和红尾蚺）检测肝簇虫血寄生虫。通过光学显微镜检查，发现20条（12.78%）蛇的肝簇虫属检测呈阳性，其中6/29（20.7%）为无毒蛇，14/128（10.9%）为有毒蛇；所有感染蛇的寄生虫血症水平都较低。使用引物HepF300/Hep900进行的聚合酶链反应（PCR）证实所有20个（100%）样本的血簇虫检测呈阳性。从8个测序样本中鉴定出了肝簇虫属的物种。鉴定出了两个先前描述过的物种，即库埃斯塔肝簇虫和穆萨肝簇虫。本研究首次在粗鳞蚺和杜氏响尾蛇这两种蛇宿主中报告了穆萨肝簇虫。此外，还从红尾蚺中鉴定出了一种可能的肝簇虫新物种。
