First report of Sarcocystis halieti (Apicomplexa) in bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)

At least three Sarcocystis species (S. falcatula, S. halieti and S. wobeseri–like) have been detected infecting raptorial birds. By histopathology and PCR-sequencing of the ITS1 marker, S. halieti was detected in a bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) and a black kite (Milvus migrans) from the Catalo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Prakas, Petras, Estruch, Josep, Velarde, Roser, Ilgūnas, Mikas, Šneideris, Donatas, Nicolás-Francisco, Olga, Marco, Ignasi, Calero Bernal, Rafael
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repository:Docta Complutense
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/88058
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/88058
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Apicomplexa
Sarcocystis
Raptorial birds
ITS1
Phylogeny
Ciencias Biomédicas
24 Ciencias de la Vida
Description
Summary:At least three Sarcocystis species (S. falcatula, S. halieti and S. wobeseri–like) have been detected infecting raptorial birds. By histopathology and PCR-sequencing of the ITS1 marker, S. halieti was detected in a bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) and a black kite (Milvus migrans) from the Catalonia region in North Spain. The 241 bp-long sequences obtained from the Sarcocystis organisms detected in both raptors showed 97.5–99.6% and 97.9–100% similarity with those of previously identified S. halieti; also, the phylogenetic trees generated placed the identified sequences together with other sequences of S. halieti available in GenBank. In sum, the description of the bearded vulture as a new intermediate host for S. halieti adds new insights on the complex epidemiology of the genus involving avian hosts.