A fatal case of a captive snowy owl ( Bubo scandiacus ) with Haemoproteus infection in Japan
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PROTOZOOLOGY - ORIGINAL PAPER
A fatal case of a captive snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) with Haemoproteus infection in Japan Megumu Yoshimoto 1,2 & Kenichi Ozawa 3 & Hirotaka Kondo 4 & Yusuke Echigoya 1 & Hisashi Shibuya 4 & Yukita Sato 1 Ravinder N. M. Sehgal 5
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Received: 3 August 2020 / Accepted: 5 November 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Parasites of the genus Haemoproteus are vector-borne avian haemosporidia commonly found in bird species of the world. Haemoproteus infections are typically considered relatively benign in birds. However, some Haemoproteus species cause severe disease and mortality, especially for captive birds removed from their original habitat. In September 2018, a captive 15-year-old snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus), kept in a zoological garden of Japan, died subacutely after presenting leg dysfunction. This case showed significantly low PCV and elevated AST, ALT, CK, and LDH values. Many megalomeronts with prominent morphological characteristics of Haemoproteus were observed in the left leg muscles. Those megalomeronts exhibited multilocular structures and were internally filled with merozoites. A new lineage of Haemoproteus was detected by subsequent PCR for the cytochrome b (cytb) gene of avian haemosporidia from DNA extracted from several organ tissues. The detected lineage was classified in the subgenus Parahaemoproteus and was similar to those from the wild birds inhabiting the region including the study area, suggesting that this snowy owl likely acquired its infection from wild birds. This is the first report of a fatal case of a captive bird with a locally transmitted Haemoproteus infection in Japan. We considered the pathogenicity of this infection in conjunction with the clinical course and hematology results. We surmise that snowy owls may be particularly susceptible to infection with Haemoproteus parasites, and warming northern temperatures may exacerbate the overall health of these and other high latitude birds. Further research into the prevalence of Haemoproteus in wild birds near zoological gardens and potential biting midge vectors is necessary for the ex situ conservation of introduced birds. Keywords Haemoproteus . Snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) . Pathogenicity . Japan
Introduction
Section Editor: Leonhard Schnittger * Yukita Sato [email protected] 1
Laboratory of Biomedical Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0880, Japan
2
Peter Animal Hospital, Shibuya, Tokyo 151-0061, Japan
3
Tobu Zoo, Miyashiro, Saitama 345-0831, Japan
4
Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0880, Japan
5
Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
Avian haemosporidia of the genus Haemoproteus are closely related to avian malaria parasites of the genus Plasmodium and are widely distributed throughout the world, including J
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