Blood Parasites in Endangered Wildlife-Trypanosomes Discovered during a Survey of Haemoprotozoa from the Tasmanian Devil

Abstract

The impact of emerging infectious diseases is increasingly recognised as a major threat to wildlife. Wild populations of the endangered Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, are experiencing devastating losses from a novel transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD); however, despite the rapid decline of this species, there is currently no information on the presence of haemoprotozoan parasites. In the present study, 95 Tasmanian devil blood samples were collected from four populations in Tasmania, Australia, which underwent molecular screening to detect four major groups of haemoprotozoa: (i) trypanosomes, (ii) piroplasms, (iii) Hepatozoon, and (iv) haemosporidia. Sequence results revealed Trypanosoma infections in 32/95 individuals. Trypanosoma copemani was identified in 10 Tasmanian devils from three sites and a second Trypanosoma sp. was identified in 22 individuals that were grouped within the poorly described T. cyclops clade. A single blood sample was positive for Babesia sp., which most closely matched Babesia lohae. No other blood protozoan parasite DNA was detected. This study provides the first insight into haemoprotozoa from the Tasmanian devil and the first identification of Trypanosoma and Babesia in this carnivorous marsupial.

Metatranscriptomic profiling reveals diverse tick‐borne bacteria, protozoans and viruses in ticks and wildlife from Australia

“…BR042 which was recently described from R. rattus from Sydney (Egan, Taylor, Austen, et al, 2020) (Figure S9). Additionally, one (33.3%) T. vulpecula sample from northern Sydney was dominated by trypanosome contigs (relative abundance: 41.27%), and 18S sequences from this sample were up to 98.9% similar to a group of poorly classified T. cyclops-like trypanosomes which have previously been identified in Australian leeches and marsupials, including T. vulpecula (Egan, Ruiz-Aravena, Austen, et al, 2020;Egan, Taylor, Austen, Banks, et al, 2021;Hall et al, 2021;Hamilton et al, 2005) (Figure S9).…”

Haemoprotozoan surveillance in peri-urban native and introduced wildlife from Australia

“…Since 2020 however, there have been at least four reports of this clade. Trypanosoma cyclops genotypes have been identified from Tasmanian devil blood samples (Tasmania, Australia) ( Egan et al., 2020a ), rodent liver samples ( Bunomys , Maxomys , Paucidentomys and Rattus ) (Indonesia) ( Winterhoff et al., 2020 ), swamp wallaby cranial tissue (New South Wales, Australia) ( Ortiz-Baez et al, 2020 ) and long-nosed potoroo blood samples (New South Wales, Australia) ( Hall et al., 2021 ). The results presented here provide further support for the widespread distribution of this trypanosome with regards to geographical location and hosts.…”

Molecular Detection of Trypanosoma spp. in Questing and Feeding Ticks (Ixodidae) Collected from an Endemic Region of South-West Australia

“…Within Australia, a growing number of indigenous trypanosomes have been found to naturally infect a variety of native wildlife [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Of particular concern is the reported association of species of indigenous trypanosomes as the causative agents in the deteriorating health, and subsequent population decline, of certain wildlife such as the woylie (syn.…”