Using microscopy and PCR, we determined the prevalence of blood parasites in village chickens in Uganda and Cameroon. Of 148 individuals tested, 18.3% were infected with Leucocytozoon schoutedeni (Haemosporida, Leucocytozoidae) and 4.1% were infected with Trypanosoma gallinarum (Kinetoplastida, Trypanosomatidae). No other blood parasites were detected. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis of the cytochrome b gene of L. schoutedeni identified 2 distinct lineages that were found at all 3 sampling locations in Uganda. The sequence divergence between these 2 lineages is 1.5%. One of these lineages was also found in chickens in Cameroon, nearly 2,000 km distant. There are no morphological differences between blood stages of the parasites represented by the 2 different lineages, suggesting that cytochrome b gene sequence divergence can be as high as 1.5% within a single well-defined morphospecies of Leucocytozoon. We sequenced a portion of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rRNA) of T. gallinarum, and redescribe T. gallinarum for the first time since its discovery in 1911. These are the first assignments of DNA sequence data to these morphospecies of Leucocytozoon and Trypanosoma and may represent an example of intraspecific sequence divergence.
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December 2006
SYSTEMATICS-PHYLOGENETICS|
December 01 2006
BLOOD PARASITES OF CHICKENS IN UGANDA AND CAMEROON WITH MOLECULAR DESCRIPTIONS OF LEUCOCYTOZOON SCHOUTEDENI AND TRYPANOSOMA GALLINARUM Available to Purchase
Ravinder N. M. Sehgal;
Ravinder N. M. Sehgal
Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, California 94132. [email protected]
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Gediminas Valkiūnas;
Gediminas Valkiūnas
Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, California 94132. [email protected]
* Institute of Ecology, Vilnius University, Akademijos 2, Vilnius 21, LT-08412, Lithuania
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Tatjana A. Iezhova;
Tatjana A. Iezhova
Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, California 94132. [email protected]
* Institute of Ecology, Vilnius University, Akademijos 2, Vilnius 21, LT-08412, Lithuania
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Thomas B. Smith
Thomas B. Smith
Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, California 94132. [email protected]
† Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Box 951496, 619 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, California 90095-1496
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J Parasitol (2006) 92 (6): 1336–1343.
Citation
Ravinder N. M. Sehgal, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Tatjana A. Iezhova, Thomas B. Smith; BLOOD PARASITES OF CHICKENS IN UGANDA AND CAMEROON WITH MOLECULAR DESCRIPTIONS OF LEUCOCYTOZOON SCHOUTEDENI AND TRYPANOSOMA GALLINARUM. J Parasitol 1 December 2006; 92 (6): 1336–1343. doi: https://doi.org/10.1645/GE-927R.1
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