Palinauskas Vaidas, Žiegytė Rita, Šengaut Jakov, Bernotienė Rasa
Institute of Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, 08412 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Faculty of Agrotechnologies, Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Jul 22;12(15):1879. doi: 10.3390/ani12151879.
Co-infections are common in the wild. Thus, studies focused on parasite interactions are essential. We aimed to (i) follow the development of two genetic lineages of -pSGS1 and pGRW11-during single infections and co-infections and (ii) evaluate their impact on bird host health.
Twenty-four domestic canaries were allocated to four groups: two groups were infected with parasites of a single genetic lineage, one group was infected with parasites of both genetic lineages, and one group was considered as the control group. Parasitemia, the number of polychromatophils, changes in body weight, and hemoglobin levels were all quantified up to 32 days post-infection.
Three birds infected with pSGS1 died within 20 days post-infection. The prepatent period and the peak of parasitemia did not differ significantly between groups. Differences in hemoglobin levels between the control and experimental groups were observed and there was an abnormal increase in the number of polychromatophils in infected birds. In all infected groups, correlations were detected between the number of polychromatophils and parasitemia (positive), and between the number of polychromatophils and hemoglobin levels (negative).
This study shows that co-infection with two phylogenetically closely related parasites does not alter overall parasitemia and does not cause higher virulence to the host.
共感染在野外很常见。因此，专注于寄生虫相互作用的研究至关重要。我们旨在：（i）追踪单感染和共感染期间两种遗传谱系（-pSGS1和pGRW11-）的发育情况；（ii）评估它们对鸟类宿主健康的影响。
将24只家养金丝雀分为四组：两组感染单一遗传谱系的寄生虫，一组感染两种遗传谱系的寄生虫，一组作为对照组。在感染后32天内对寄生虫血症、多染性嗜中性粒细胞数量、体重变化和血红蛋白水平进行了量化。
三只感染pSGS1的鸟在感染后20天内死亡。各组之间的潜伏期和寄生虫血症峰值无显著差异。观察到对照组和实验组之间血红蛋白水平存在差异，且感染鸟类的多染性嗜中性粒细胞数量异常增加。在所有感染组中，检测到多染性嗜中性粒细胞数量与寄生虫血症之间呈正相关，多染性嗜中性粒细胞数量与血红蛋白水平之间呈负相关。
本研究表明，两种系统发育密切相关的寄生虫共感染不会改变总体寄生虫血症，也不会对宿主造成更高的毒力。
