Do blood parasites infect Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) in the wild? Prospective investigation and climatogeographic considerations

EPIPHANIO, SABRINA; CATÃO-DIAS, JOSÉ LUIZ; UHART, MARCELA; RAGO, VIRGINIA; HURTADO, RENATA; VANSTREELS, RALPH ERIC THIJL

PARASITOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2017 vol. 144 p. 698 - 705

0031-1820

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are native to Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. Magellanic penguinsare highly susceptible to blood parasites such as the mosquito-borne Plasmodium spp., which have been documentedcausing high morbidity and mortality in zoos and rehabilitation centres. However, to date no blood parasites have beendetected in wild Magellanic penguins, and it is not clear whether this is reflective of their true absence or is insteadrelated to an insufficiency in sampling effort or a failure of the diagnostic methods. We examined blood smears of 284Magellanic penguins from the Argentinean coast and tested their blood samples with nested polymerase chain reactiontests targeting Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, Leucocytozoon and Babesia. No blood parasites were detected. Analysing thesampling effort of previous studies and the climatogeography of the region, we found there is strong basis to concludethat haemosporidians do not infect wild Magellanic penguins on the Argentinean coast. However, at present it is not possibleto determine whether such parasites occur on the Chilean coast and at the Falkland Islands. Furthermore, it is troublingthat the northward distribution expansion of Magellanic penguins and the poleward distribution shift of vectors maylead to novel opportunities for the transmission of blood parasites.