Especificidade, diversidade e dinâmica parasitária da malária aviária em hospedeiros da superfamília furnarioidea com bases parasitológicas e moleculares

Abstract

Diseases such as avian malaria are one of the major obstacles to the success of host species. Its impact can have negative consequences on bird populations, change population dynamics, relative abundance, dispersal, genetic diversity and community structure. Parasites of the genus Plasmodium are the cause of avian malaria. They have a wide distribution in the globe, with their greater diversity in the tropics. Knowing the devastating potential that avian malaria has over natural bird populations, this study aims to investigate the diversity of Plasmodium that occurs in the birds of the superfamily Furnarioidea, endemic birds of South America that find in Brazil its great wealth center of species, trying to understand the parasitic dynamics (prevalence, parasitemia and aggregation) and the specificity relations with the hosts and geographic distribution of this parasite. Through microscopy studies to investigate the diversity of species; studies in molecular biology and phylogenetics to recover evolutionary relationships; and with modern bioinformatics tools for the computational delimitation of species; we added five new lines of the Plasmodium cytb gene. We also show that a significant part of the bird population is parasitized (mean prevalence = 12%) and that these infections mostly occur at low intensity (mean parasitemia = 0.045) and in aggregate form (ID = 0.941), suggesting that in most cases of chronic infections or abortive development of the parasites. We recovered through the computational delimitation of species by the MPTP method, 17 evolutionary units of Plasmodium occurring in the hosts of Furnarioidea, revealing a great diversity of these parasites. We reaffirm the great plasticity of Plasmodium, with its lineages showing inespecifity in relation to the five host families, suggesting the ability to change host successfully during its evolutionary process and the wide geographical distribution of Plasmodium, showing that globally widespread species such as P. relictum and with high pathogenic potential, such as P. gallinaceum are occurring in these endemic birds.