Occurrence of blood parasites in seabirds admitted for rehabilitation in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2001–2013

[Display omitted] •We evaluated blood smears of 1909 seabirds belonging to 27 seabird species.•Blood parasites were detected in 59% of species and 29% of individuals.•Several of the records are novel host-parasite associations. Blood parasites are generally uncommon in seabirds, and knowledge on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Veterinary parasitology Vol. 233; pp. 52 - 61
Main Authors:	Parsons, N.J., Voogt, N.M., Schaefer, A.M., Peirce, M.A., Vanstreels, R.E.T.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15-01-2017
Subjects:	Animals Bird Diseases - blood Bird Diseases - epidemiology Bird Diseases - microbiology Bird Diseases - parasitology Birds - blood Birds - parasitology Cape cormorant Cape gannet Epidemiology Haemosporida Host-Parasite Interactions Marine fauna Pathology Protozoan Infections, Animal - blood Protozoan Infections, Animal - microbiology Protozoan Infections, Animal - parasitology South Africa Spirochaetales - physiology Spirochaetales Infections - blood Spirochaetales Infections - epidemiology Spirochaetales Infections - veterinary Pathology Haemosporida Cape cormorant Cape gannet Epidemiology Marine fauna
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Summary:	[Display omitted] •We evaluated blood smears of 1909 seabirds belonging to 27 seabird species.•Blood parasites were detected in 59% of species and 29% of individuals.•Several of the records are novel host-parasite associations. Blood parasites are generally uncommon in seabirds, and knowledge on their epidemiology is further limited by the fact that they often inhabit remote locations that are logistically difficult or expensive to study. We present a long term data set of blood smear examinations of 1909 seabirds belonging to 27 species that were admitted to a rehabilitation centre in Cape Town (Western Cape, South Africa) between 2001 and 2013. Blood parasites were detected in 59% of species (16/27) and 29% of individuals examined (551/1909). The following blood parasites were recorded: Babesia ugwidiensis, Babesia peircei, Babesia sp., Plasmodium sp., Leucocytozoon ugwidi, Hepatozoon albatrossi, Haemoproteus skuae and Spirochaetales. Several of the records are novel host-parasite associations, demonstrating the potential of rehabilitation centres for parasite and disease surveillance, particularly for species infrequently sampled from which no host-specific parasites have been described.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0304-4017 1873-2550
DOI:	10.1016/j.vetpar.2016.12.001