First record of haemosporidian parasites infecting swifts (Aves: Apodidae).

Abstract

Avian malaria is a widespread infection caused by parasites from the Order Haemosporida. Indeed, Neotropical swifts are interesting models for host-parasite coevolution studies due to their unique life history that may allow them to escape parasitism. Considering this, we evaluated haemosporidians from Neotropical swifts. We collected blood and prepared smears from 277 individuals from waterfalls in Brazil. Despite low parasitemia or absence of parasites detected by microscopy haemosporidian infection was detected in 44 swifts (15.8%) using a screening PCR that amplifies a 154-nucleotide segment of ribosomal RNA coding sequence within the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. Although previous studies reported absence of these parasites in European and North American swifts our data suggest that Neotropical swifts are susceptible to haemosporidians. Further studies will add information about evolutionary and ecological aspects of avian haemosporidia in Neotropical Cypseloidinae swifts.