Prakas Petras, Calero-Bernal Rafael, Dubey Jitender P
Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, Vilnius 08412, Lithuania.
SALUVET Group, Animal Health Department, Veterinary Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain.
Vet Parasitol. 2025 Apr;335:110413. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2025.110413. Epub 2025 Feb 7.
Sarcocystis infections have been reported from numerous avian species. A remarkable number of valid Sarcocystis species infecting birds have been identified and named having avian species as intermediate hosts (n = 32). Only 14 species have their complete biological cycle known due to the difficulties in conducting in vivo experiments. In addition, at least 16 Sarcocystis species have been confirmed by molecular techniques to use birds as their definitive hosts. The present paper reviews recent findings in the field and remarks on the contribution of molecular tools to unravel important aspects of the epidemiology of the genus. Clinical diagnosis is discussed. Three Sarcocystis species, Sarcocystis falcatula, Sarcocystis calchasi, and Sarcocystis halieti have wide host range and cause clinical sarcocystosis in many avian species. Limitations of currently available molecular markers and animal experimentation to distinguish closely related Sarcocystis species are discussed.
已在众多鸟类物种中报告了肉孢子虫感染。现已鉴定并命名了大量以鸟类为中间宿主的有效肉孢子虫物种（n = 32）。由于进行体内实验存在困难，只有14个物种的完整生命周期为人所知。此外，分子技术已证实至少有16种肉孢子虫以鸟类为终末宿主。本文综述了该领域的最新研究成果，并阐述了分子工具在揭示该属流行病学重要方面的作用。还讨论了临床诊断。三种肉孢子虫，即镰状肉孢子虫、卡尔查斯肉孢子虫和哈氏肉孢子虫，宿主范围广泛，可在许多鸟类物种中引起临床肉孢子虫病。文中还讨论了目前可用的分子标记和动物实验在区分密切相关的肉孢子虫物种方面的局限性。
