Rudaitytė-Lukošienė Eglė, Palinauskas Vaidas, Markakis Grigorios, Butkauskas Dalius, Prakas Petras
State Scientific Research Institute Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, Vilnius, 08412, Lithuania.
School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece.
Acta Parasitol. 2025 Aug 13;70(4):180. doi: 10.1007/s11686-025-01119-7.
Sarcocystis (Apicomplexa: Sarcocystidae) is a cyst-forming coccidian parasite that infects mammals, reptiles and birds. Despite the emergence of studies employing less invasive or lethal methods to study these parasites, Sarcocystis species have yet to be detected in avian blood. The objective of this study was to molecularly identify Sarcocystis species in the blood DNA samples of three avian host species.
A total of 93 DNA samples from avian blood were subjected to a screening procedure for Sarcocystis. Samples from three bird species, 30 western house martins (Delichon urbicum), 40 barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and 23 Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) were used for PCR and sequencing.
Nine samples were found to be positive for Sarcocystis, with a prevalence of 17.4% among Eurasian griffon vultures, 7.5% prevalence among barn swallows, and 6.7% prevalence among western house martins. Based on the sequencing of the partial ITS1 locus S. halieti was identified.
In this paper, S. halieti was molecularly discovered for the first time across all three examined avian host species. Furthermore, S. halieti has been recorded as the first species identified in swallows (Hirundinidae family). However, conclusive confirmation of S. halieti infection in the analysed animals requires examination of muscle tissue for sarcocysts. The results demonstrate that molecular diagnostics from blood samples using PCR/sequencing has the potential to identify Sarcocystis species in avian hosts and implementation of such a technique could prove advantageous in the analysis of these parasites in wild animals.
肉孢子虫（顶复门：肉孢子虫科）是一种形成包囊的球虫寄生虫，可感染哺乳动物、爬行动物和鸟类。尽管已出现采用侵入性较小或非致死性方法研究这些寄生虫的研究，但尚未在鸟类血液中检测到肉孢子虫物种。本研究的目的是从三种鸟类宿主物种的血液DNA样本中分子鉴定肉孢子虫物种。
对总共93份鸟类血液DNA样本进行肉孢子虫筛查程序。来自三种鸟类的样本，即30只家燕（Delichon urbicum）、40只家燕（Hirundo rustica）和23只欧亚兀鹫（Gyps fulvus），用于PCR和测序。
发现9份样本肉孢子虫呈阳性，欧亚兀鹫中的患病率为17.4%，家燕中的患病率为7.5%，家燕中的患病率为6.7%。基于部分ITS1位点的测序，鉴定出哈氏肉孢子虫。
在本文中，首次在所有三种被检查的鸟类宿主物种中分子发现了哈氏肉孢子虫。此外，哈氏肉孢子虫被记录为在燕子（燕科）中鉴定出的第一个物种。然而，要确定分析动物中哈氏肉孢子虫感染的确切情况，需要检查肌肉组织中的包囊。结果表明，使用PCR/测序从血液样本中进行分子诊断有潜力鉴定鸟类宿主中的肉孢子虫物种，并且实施这种技术在分析野生动物中的这些寄生虫方面可能证明是有利的。
