Haematospirillum and insect Wolbachia DNA in avian blood

Abstract

In this study, blood samples of 259 Acrocephalus sp. warblers were molecularly analysed for Anaplasmataceae and Rhodospirillaceae based on PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene fragments. One bird blood sample (from Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus scirpaceus) yielded a sequence with 99.8% identity to Haematospirillum jordaniae. This is the first molecular evidence for the occurrence of this species in the blood of any vertebrate other than human. Another bird blood sample (from Marsh Warbler: Acrocephalus palustris) yielded a Wolbachia sequence, closely related to a moth endosymbiont with 99.8% identity. A nematode origin of Wolbachia DNA detected here in avian blood can be excluded, because results of phylogenetic analysis showed its closest alignment with insect wolbachiae. This is the first finding of insect Wolbachia DNA in the circulatory system of birds, which can be explained either by the inoculation of wolbachiae by blood-sucking vectors, or passing of Wolbachia DNA from the gut into the blood of this insectivorous bird species.

Bat Flies and Their Microparasites: Current Knowledge and Distribution

“…Furthermore, Wolbachia DNA has been also detected in mammalian blood due to the presence of infected nematodes in host blood (140). It has been observed once in an avian blood system, with the strain being more closely related to the arthropod-associated Wolbachia group (141), and likely having no direct effect on their vertebrate hosts.…”