Under the light: high prevalence of haemoparasites in lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from Central Amazonia revealed by microscopy

Abstract

Blood samples from 330 lizards of 19 species were collected to investigate the occurrence of haemoparasites. Samplings were performed in areas of upland (terrafi rme) forest adjacent to Manaus municipality, Amazonas, Brazil. Blood parasites were detected in 220 (66%) lizards of 12 species and comprised four major groups: Apicomplexa (including haemogregarines, piroplasms, and haemosporidians), trypanosomatids, microfi larid nematodes and viral or bacterial organisms. Order Haemosporida had the highest prevalence, with 118 (35%) animals from 11 species. For lizard species, Uranoscodon superciliosus was the most parasitised host, with 103 (87%; n = 118) positive individuals. This species also presented the highest parasite diversity, with the occurrence of six taxa. Despite the diffi culties attributed by many authors regarding the use of morphological characters for taxonomic resolution of haemoparasites, our lowcost approach using light microscopy recorded a high prevalence and diversity of blood parasite taxa in a relatively small number of host species. This report is the fi rst survey of haemoparasites in lizards in the study region. It revealed a high diversity of lizard haemoparasites and highlights the need to understand their impacts on hosts.

Plasmodium ouropretensis, n. sp., a new case of non-erythrocytic species within lizard malaria parasites

“…Plasmodium tropiduri is a species complex with four recognized subspecies infecting lizards from Mexico to southeastern Brazil (Telford, 1979(Telford, , 2009. Plasmodium tropiduri tropiduri is a widespread parasite in Brazil and Venezuela and infects at least five lizard species of four families (Telford, 2009;Picelli et al, 2020). This parasite produces trophozoites, meronts, and gametocytes in thrombocytes.…”

Short‐term impact of a wildfire on the homeostasis of Tropidurus oreadicus lizards

“…However, the short interval between wildfire and sampling may not have been sufficient to influence parasite abundance. We also could not determine whether the hemoparasite infections occurred before or after the fire since parasites are common in lizards (Picelli et al, 2020). Therefore, we considered parasite data a potential influencer of CORT, HLR, body mass, and BKA.…”

“…We extracted DNA from the cell concentrates using the commercial Illustra Blood Genomicprep kit (GE Health Care ® ) according to the manufacturer's guidelines. We tested for haemosporidians (Haemosporida), trypanosomatids (Trypanosomatidae), and haemogregarines (Haemogregarina), the most observed hemoparasites found in lizards in Brazil (Picelli et al, 2020): We used three oligonucleotides for these agents, an extra pair to confirm the extraction (Table 1), and tested all samples in duplicate. The tests performed were qualitative PCR, with positive or negative results; therefore, it was impossible to quantify the parasitic load.…”

Effects of the habitat on anuran blood parasites in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon

“…These differences can be explained by the different levels of human disturbance that occur in these locations. However, it is necessary to emphasize that the Amazon region, where our study was conducted, is recognized for harboring a great diversity of host fauna and their hemoparasites (Lainson et al 1992, Picelli et al 2020, although this last one is little known in anurans.…”

“…The isolation of these parasites by means of culture in axenic media is limited to studies of extracellular parasites, preventing the performance of the procedure with intraerythrocyte parasites (Ferreira et al 2007, Attias et al 2016. On the other hand, microscopic observation allows the detection of various parasites belonging to different taxa, but their sensitivity is compromised in infections with a low parasitic load (Leal et al 2009, Rajabi et al 2017, Picelli et al 2020. Finally, the use of molecular tools (PCR) allows both the detection of parasites with high sensitivity and the sequencing for phylogeny studies (Ferreira et al 2020).…”