Prevalence of new and known species of haemoparasites in feral pigeons in northwest Italy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Haemoparasites in feral pigeons have been studied in several countries but no data are available from Italy. The aim of this work was to evaluate the prevalence and diversity of Haemoproteus spp./Plasmodium spp. and Leucocytozoon spp. in feral pigeons from northwest Italy, as well as the association between infection and host age or sex.

Methods

Feral pigeons were collected during a regional culling programme from the Piedmont region (northwest Italy) and subjected to necropsy. Infections were detected from DNA extracted from the spleen following a nested PCR protocol. The association between sex or age and infection status was evaluated using the chi-squared test for independence or Fisher's exact test.

Results

Out of 51 animals, 15 were positive for Haemo

SUBMITTER: Scaglione FE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4350268 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature