RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Toxoplasma gondii infections have been reported for many warm-blooded animals around the world including chiropterans. However, in Colombia, the country that holds the highest taxonomic richness of this order of mammals in the Neotropics, up to date there are no reports of T. gondii in bats (Carollia brevicauda). PURPOSE: The objective of the present study was to detect T. gondii DNA from internal bat organs from Quindío, Colombia. RESULTS: We report the first detection of T. gondii DNA from internal bat organs in the department of Quindio, Central Andes of Colombia. Out of three silky short tail bat (Carollia brevicauda) specimens collected at the natural reserve "La Montaña del Ocaso", organs were recovered (lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, small and large intestine) and tested for T. gondii through PCR for B1 sequence, with 1/3 (33.3%) positive result for the presence of T. gondii DNA in bat kidney tissues. CONCLUSION: Taking into consideration the high diversity of bat species in Colombia, and the complexity of the ecological and functional relationships that these organisms establish in the ecosystems they inhabit, we discuss on the urgent need for more detailed research and surveys for Toxoplansma in bats and other mammalian wild species.
Asunto(s)
Quirópteros , Toxoplasma , Toxoplasmosis Animal , Animales , Colombia/epidemiología , ADN Protozoario/genética , Ecosistema , Toxoplasma/genética , Toxoplasmosis Animal/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
We document the first confirmed Colombian records of Myotis keaysi pilosatibialis LaVal, 1973 from various localities on the Colombian Caribbean and the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. These records confirm geographic overlap between M. k. pilosatibialis and the nominate subspecies M. k. keaysi J. A. Allen, 1914, in northeastern Colombia, questioning the subspecific status of M. k. pilosatibialis. Models of potential distribution, produced for the two taxa by the application of the Maxent algorithm, show a potential geographic overlap in the northeastern portion of the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela. In order to clarify the taxonomic status of putative M. keaysi variants, we analyzed the variation of Colombian representatives of M. keaysi through a Principal Components Analysis (PCA), and a Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) performed on 18 cranio-dental measurements, as well as the analysis of discrete characters. The morphological independence between M. k. keaysi and M. k. pilosatibialis was supported statistically in our PCA and DFA, as well as by the presence of unique discrete characters, lending support to the recognition of M. k. pilosatibialis as full species. Herein, we include new discrete characters setting apart M. pilosatibialis from the morphologically similar species M. keaysi.