Funk William S, Shadbolt Tammy, Fox Mark T, Sainsbury Anthony W, Blake Damer P
Royal Veterinary College, 4 Royal College St, London, NW1 0TU, UK.
WildCare Oklahoma, 8505 Wildwood Ln, Noble, OK, 73068, USA.
Parasitol Res. 2025 Jun 10;124(6):61. doi: 10.1007/s00436-025-08512-1.
The population of free-living red kites (Milvus milvus [Linnaeus 1758]) in England and Wales has increased since 1989 as a consequence of species reintroduction. The red kite, however, remains of conservation concern, with populations in Europe considered to be in decline. Plans to translocate birds from England to Spain have been initiated, prompting consideration of the disease risks associated with the translocation of parasites which may be present within the source population. This study utilized published morphological markers and molecular polymerase chain reaction techniques to identify archived adult helminth parasites extracted from the gastrointestinal tract of red kites found dead and examined post-mortem in England and Wales between 2014 and 2021. Helminths of the genus Porrocaecum (Railliet and Harry 1912) were identified in 22 out of the 23 helminth-infected red kites from a wide geographical distribution, suggesting that this parasite is common in the red kite population in England and Wales. Molecular characterization using internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2) and 28S rDNA sequences identified Porrocaecum moraveci (Gu et al. 2023), the first report of this recently described species in the UK. Ascaridia (Dujardi 1845) sp., Capillaria (Zeder 1800) sp., and Syngamus trachea (Montagu 1811) ova were also detected during the post-mortem examinations (PMEs) and are known to be present within European red kite populations, suggesting that these parasites do not represent a novel disease risk to the destination population in Spain. Previous reports of Porrocaecum angusticolle (Molin, 1860) in British and other European red kite populations should now be revisited to confirm identity and assess the risk of parasite translocation.
自1989年以来，由于物种重新引入，英格兰和威尔士自由生活的红鸢（Milvus milvus [林奈，1758年]）数量有所增加。然而，红鸢仍受到保护关注，欧洲的种群数量被认为在下降。已启动将鸟类从英格兰转移到西班牙的计划，这促使人们考虑与可能存在于源种群中的寄生虫转移相关的疾病风险。本研究利用已发表的形态学标记和分子聚合酶链反应技术，鉴定了2014年至2021年间在英格兰和威尔士发现死亡并进行尸检的红鸢胃肠道中提取的存档成年蠕虫寄生虫。在23只感染蠕虫的红鸢中，有22只来自广泛地理分布的个体中鉴定出了Porrocaecum属（Railliet和Harry, 1912年）的蠕虫，这表明这种寄生虫在英格兰和威尔士的红鸢种群中很常见。使用内部转录间隔区2（ITS-2）和28S rDNA序列进行的分子特征分析鉴定出了Porrocaecum moraveci（Gu等人，2023年），这是该最近描述物种在英国的首次报道。在尸检过程中还检测到了蛔虫属（Dujardi, 1845年）、毛细线虫属（Zeder, 1800年）的物种以及气管比翼线虫（Montagu, 1811年）卵，已知这些寄生虫存在于欧洲红鸢种群中，这表明这些寄生虫对西班牙目的地种群不构成新的疾病风险。现在应该重新审视之前关于英国和其他欧洲红鸢种群中狭颈Porrocaecum（莫林，1860年）的报道，以确认其身份并评估寄生虫转移的风险。
