Borderlands Research Institute, Department of Natural Resource Management, Sul Ross State University, East US Highway 90, Alpine, Texas 79832.
Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, 1262 US Highway 180, Rotan, Texas 79546.
J Parasitol. 2022 Sep 1;108(5):419-422. doi: 10.1645/21-107.
Texas quail populations have declined over the past few decades. While habitat loss has been identified as the primary cause, it has been speculated that pathogens may also play a role in this decline. To help address this, we collected scaled quail, Callipepla squamata, Gambel's quail, Callipepla gambelii, and Montezuma quail, Cyrtonyx montezumae, from across the Trans-Pecos ecoregion of Texas via hunter-harvest. Quail samples were then necropsied to document pathogens not previously recorded in the host species. Pathogens were submitted to the Texas A&M University Veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Lab (TVMDL), where parasite identification and histopathological analyses were conducted. From this, we identified several parasites that had never been documented in the quails of the Trans-Pecos ecoregion of Texas. This study was the first to document Mycobacterium sp. and Sarcocystis sp. in scaled quail, Subulura sp. and Physaloptera sp. in Montezuma quail, and Oxyspirura petrowi and Aulonocephalus pennula in a Texas Gambel's quail.
德克萨斯鹌鹑的数量在过去几十年中有所减少。虽然栖息地的丧失已被确定为主要原因，但有人推测病原体也可能在这一下降中起作用。为了帮助解决这个问题，我们从德克萨斯州的跨佩科斯生态区收集了分布范围广泛的几种鹌鹑，包括普通珠鸡（Callipepla squamata）、草原榛鸡（Callipepla gambelii）和蒙氏珠鸡（Cyrtonyx montezumae），这些鹌鹑都是通过猎人狩猎获得的。然后对鹌鹑样本进行剖检，以记录宿主物种中以前未记录过的病原体。病原体被提交给德克萨斯 A&M 大学兽医学院诊断实验室（TVMDL），在那里进行寄生虫鉴定和组织病理学分析。通过这项研究，我们在德克萨斯州跨佩科斯生态区的鹌鹑中发现了几种以前从未记录过的寄生虫。这项研究首次在普通珠鸡中记录了分枝杆菌属（Mycobacterium sp.）和肉孢子虫属（Sarcocystis sp.），在蒙氏珠鸡中记录了 Subulura sp.和Physaloptera sp.，在德克萨斯州的草原榛鸡中记录了奥氏旋毛虫（Oxyspirura petrowi）和膨结线虫（Aulonocephalus pennula）。
