Investigation of Babesia sp. in pygoscelid penguins at the South Shetland Islands

ABSTRACT

Babesia spp. are tick-borne parasites, and 16 avian-infecting species have been described to date, including one species (Babesia peircei) that infects penguins. Considering the results of a recent study reporting Babesia sp. in penguins on Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, we re-examined the samples obtained in a previous investigation on the occurrence of blood parasites in adult Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae), chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) on King George and Elephant islands, South Shetland Islands. Notwithstanding a comprehensive re-examination of the blood smears, Babesia sp. was not detected. When we employed two nested PCR tests targeting the 18S rRNA gene of Babesia, a considerable proportion of the samples produced positive results; however, gene sequencing revealed these were due to cross-amplification of non-target organisms. We therefore did not detect Babesia sp. infection in penguins on King George and Elephant islands. Additional studies will be valuable to clarify the distribution and epidemiology of tick-borne pathogens in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic seabirds.

KEYWORDS:

• Antarctica
• blood
• seabird
• Spheniscidae
• tick-borne pathogen

ABBREVIATION:

• PCR: polymerase chain reaction technique

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to our colleagues who contributed in the original study, and to the support of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Farmacêuticas da Universidade de São Paulo, Programa Antártico Brasileiro, Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Comissão Interministerial para os Recursos do Mar and Marinha do Brasil. We are grateful to Nola Parsons, Lisa Nupen, Angélica Sarmiento, Jorge Oyakawa, Michael Yabsley and Hannah Munro for their contributions to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP 2009/53956-9, 2010/51801-5), Program for Technological Development in Tools for Health, National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development, Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education and the South African National Research Foundation.