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Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites
BACKGROUND: Species of avian malaria parasites (Plasmodium) are widespread, but their virulence has been insufficiently investigated, particularly in wild birds. During avian malaria, several cycles of tissue merogony occur, and many Plasmodium spp. produce secondary exoerythrocytic meronts (phanero...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4857288/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27146519 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1310-x |
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author | Ilgūnas, Mikas Bukauskaitė, Dovilė Palinauskas, Vaidas Iezhova, Tatjana A. Dinhopl, Nora Nedorost, Nora Weissenbacher-Lang, Christiane Weissenböck, Herbert Valkiūnas, Gediminas |
author_facet | Ilgūnas, Mikas Bukauskaitė, Dovilė Palinauskas, Vaidas Iezhova, Tatjana A. Dinhopl, Nora Nedorost, Nora Weissenbacher-Lang, Christiane Weissenböck, Herbert Valkiūnas, Gediminas |
author_sort | Ilgūnas, Mikas |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Species of avian malaria parasites (Plasmodium) are widespread, but their virulence has been insufficiently investigated, particularly in wild birds. During avian malaria, several cycles of tissue merogony occur, and many Plasmodium spp. produce secondary exoerythrocytic meronts (phanerozoites), which are induced by merozoites developing in erythrocytic meronts. Phanerozoites markedly damage organs, but remain insufficiently investigated in the majority of described Plasmodium spp. Avian malaria parasite Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum (lineage pCOLL4) is virulent and produces phanerozoites in domestic canaries Serinus canaria, but its pathogenicity in wild birds remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the pathology caused by this infection in species of common European birds. METHODS: One individual of Eurasian siskin Carduelis spinus, common crossbill Loxia curvirostra and common starling Sturnus vulgaris were exposed to P. homocircumflexum infection by intramuscular sub-inoculation of infected blood. The birds were maintained in captivity and parasitaemia was monitored until their death due to malaria. Brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, and a piece of breast muscle were examined using histology and chromogenic in situ hybridization (ISH) methods. RESULTS: All exposed birds developed malaria infection, survived the peak of parasitaemia, but suddenly died between 30 and 38 days post exposure when parasitaemia markedly decreased. Numerous phanerozoites were visible in histological sections of all organs and were particularly easily visualized after ISH processing. Blockage of brain capillaries with phanerozoites may have led to cerebral ischaemia, causing cerebral paralysis and is most likely the main reason of sudden death of all infected individuals. Inflammatory response was not visible around the brain, heart and muscle phanerozoites, and it was mild in parenchymal organs. The endothelial damage likely causes dysfunction and failure of parenchymal organs. CONCLUSION: Plasmodium homocircumflexum caused death of experimental passerine birds due to marked damage of organs by phanerozoites. Patterns of phanerozoites development and pathology were similar in all exposed birds. Mortality was reported when parasitaemia decreased or even turned into chronic stage, indicating that the light parasitaemia is not always indication of improved health during avian malaria. Application of traditional histological and ISH methods in parallel simplifies investigation of exoerythrocytic development and is recommended in avian malaria research. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4857288 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-48572882016-05-06 Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites Ilgūnas, Mikas Bukauskaitė, Dovilė Palinauskas, Vaidas Iezhova, Tatjana A. Dinhopl, Nora Nedorost, Nora Weissenbacher-Lang, Christiane Weissenböck, Herbert Valkiūnas, Gediminas Malar J Research BACKGROUND: Species of avian malaria parasites (Plasmodium) are widespread, but their virulence has been insufficiently investigated, particularly in wild birds. During avian malaria, several cycles of tissue merogony occur, and many Plasmodium spp. produce secondary exoerythrocytic meronts (phanerozoites), which are induced by merozoites developing in erythrocytic meronts. Phanerozoites markedly damage organs, but remain insufficiently investigated in the majority of described Plasmodium spp. Avian malaria parasite Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum (lineage pCOLL4) is virulent and produces phanerozoites in domestic canaries Serinus canaria, but its pathogenicity in wild birds remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the pathology caused by this infection in species of common European birds. METHODS: One individual of Eurasian siskin Carduelis spinus, common crossbill Loxia curvirostra and common starling Sturnus vulgaris were exposed to P. homocircumflexum infection by intramuscular sub-inoculation of infected blood. The birds were maintained in captivity and parasitaemia was monitored until their death due to malaria. Brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, and a piece of breast muscle were examined using histology and chromogenic in situ hybridization (ISH) methods. RESULTS: All exposed birds developed malaria infection, survived the peak of parasitaemia, but suddenly died between 30 and 38 days post exposure when parasitaemia markedly decreased. Numerous phanerozoites were visible in histological sections of all organs and were particularly easily visualized after ISH processing. Blockage of brain capillaries with phanerozoites may have led to cerebral ischaemia, causing cerebral paralysis and is most likely the main reason of sudden death of all infected individuals. Inflammatory response was not visible around the brain, heart and muscle phanerozoites, and it was mild in parenchymal organs. The endothelial damage likely causes dysfunction and failure of parenchymal organs. CONCLUSION: Plasmodium homocircumflexum caused death of experimental passerine birds due to marked damage of organs by phanerozoites. Patterns of phanerozoites development and pathology were similar in all exposed birds. Mortality was reported when parasitaemia decreased or even turned into chronic stage, indicating that the light parasitaemia is not always indication of improved health during avian malaria. Application of traditional histological and ISH methods in parallel simplifies investigation of exoerythrocytic development and is recommended in avian malaria research. BioMed Central 2016-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4857288/ /pubmed/27146519 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1310-x Text en © Ilgūnas et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Ilgūnas, Mikas Bukauskaitė, Dovilė Palinauskas, Vaidas Iezhova, Tatjana A. Dinhopl, Nora Nedorost, Nora Weissenbacher-Lang, Christiane Weissenböck, Herbert Valkiūnas, Gediminas Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title | Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title_full | Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title_fullStr | Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title_full_unstemmed | Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title_short | Mortality and pathology in birds due to Plasmodium (Giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
title_sort | mortality and pathology in birds due to plasmodium (giovannolaia) homocircumflexum infection, with emphasis on the exoerythrocytic development of avian malaria parasites |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4857288/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27146519 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1310-x |
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