Haemoproteus lineages

Inumaru, Mizue, Murata, Koichi & Sato, Yukita, 2017, Prevalence of avian haemosporidia among injured wild birds in Tokyo and environs, Japan, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 6 (3), pp. 299-309 : 306-307

4.4. Analysis of Haemoproteus lineages

18 Haemoproteus lineages were found in this study ( Table 4). 3 of these lineages were previously found in other countries, suggesting a wide distribution. Of these, TUCHR01 was found from Japanese thrush ( Turdus cardis ), being of the same genus as all the previous hosts. Although not as strict as Leucocytozoon , Haemoproteus is known to have host specificity to a certain degree. Moreover, this lineage, which belongs to the species H. minutus , is known to have high specificity in thrush (Valkiunas ¯, 2005; Palinauskas et al., 2013). This study is hence supportive of this specificity.

For all the remaining lineages, except for 1 with a single previous detection within Japan, there is no vector or avian information regarding distribution or transmission. This is in part due to the fact that most of the lineages were detected for the first time. There are very few previously reported lineages of Haemoproteus in Japan, although reasons are unknown. Also, while there are at least 82 known species of Culicoides spp. in Japan ( Yanase et al., 2014), there have been no studies regarding haemosporidian infection in Culicoides spp. or any other biting midge genus. However, 11 of these lineages were detected from resident breeders, strongly suggesting that these lineages are transmitted within Japan. For the 4 lineages derived solely from migratory breeders, further sampling and studies on both the vector and host species are needed for any further speculations.

It is interesting to note that there were no lineages found solely from wintering visitors, unlike Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon . In the other 2 genera, there were many lineages from wintering visitors, but tended to be of a specific host species or order. There is a possibility that such host specific lineages of Haemoproteus were simply not sampled in this study. Of the 4 wintering visitors infected with Haemoproteus , only 2 were identified to a specific lineage due to co-infection. The 2 lineages from wintering visitors were also found from resident breeders. There are three possibilities for these lineages. One is that they were infected in their breeding grounds. LARCRA01 has been previously detected in Spain from Caspian gull ( Larus cachinnans ), which suggests that this lineage has a wide distribution, as mentioned above. Another possibility is that they were infected within the facilities, also discussed earlier. The last possibility is that they were infected in Japan during the winter. Seasonal dynamics of Culicoides spp. have been studied in other countries and generally, they agree that there are no active Culicoides spp. from November to April ( Ander et al., 2012; Santiago-Alarcon et al., 2013). However, another study found parous biting midges in February, suggesting that bloodsucking activities occur even during the winter ( Mayo et al., 2014). Although the seasonality for Culicoides spp. in Japan is unknown, there is a possibility that Haemoproteus may be transmitted even during the winter. In order to do any further discussion, more information regarding Haemoproteus , including the identification of vector species, is needed.