RESUMO
To date, 9 species of Schistosomatidae have been found parasitizing the nasal tissues of mammal and bird hosts in the Eastern Hemisphere, 5 species in Rwanda (Africa), 2 in Australia (Oceania) and 2 in Eurasia. During a parasitological survey of black necked swans, Cygnus melancoryphus, an anatid endemic to South America, schistosome worms in the nasal tissue were found; the first in the Americas. Morphological results based on male worms and in isolated eggs. The worms have a spiny tegument, filiform body with rounded posterior end, two muscular suckers, a robust gynaecophoric channel with thickened cross bands, and around 130 testes. The eggs are elongate with an asymmetrical bulge, with a slender process at one end and a longer curved process at the other. Diagnostic morphological characteristics do not match with any schistosome genus. Part of the mitochondrial cox1 and nuclear DNA 28S partial genes were sequenced and compared to Schistosomatidae in GenBank. The genetic results confirm the distinctiveness of the specimens since they do not group with any described genus or undescribed lineage other than cercariae of "Chilina lineage 1" that emerge from the Patagonian Chilina gibbosa, a freshwater snail endemic to South America. Based on morphological and genetic characterization of these schistosomes, these specimens represent a new genus and species that parasitizes black necked swans as adults in the nasal tissue, and C. gibbosa is the first intermediate host, both hosts being endemic to South America.
Assuntos
Doenças das Aves , Schistosomatidae , Animais , Masculino , Filogenia , Schistosomatidae/genética , Caramujos , América do SulRESUMO
Trematodes belonging to the family Spirorchiidae are blood parasites mainly of turtles with a worldwide distribution. These flukes were recently reported in some marine turtles from South America, where the occurrence of spirorchiids in freshwater definitive and intermediate hosts is so far unknown. In the present study, three morphotypes of brevifurcate apharyngeate distome cercariae found in freshwater molluscs from an urban reservoir in Brazil were used for morphological and molecular (nuclear 28S rDNA) evaluation. Two morphotypes of cercariae, probably congeneric species, were found in 12/17,465 specimens of Biomphalaria spp. and differ from each other by body size and sequences (0.1%). They present morphology similar to North American freshwater spirorchiids (Spirorchis spp.), however surprisingly molecular data reveals that these lineages are more closely related to marine spirorchiids. A third species found in 2/777 Pomacea sp. differs morphologically from all previously described spirorchiid cercariae and genetically from spirorchiids with available sequences (16-19%), grouping in the phylogenetic tree with freshwater North American species. This is the first report of freshwater spirorchiids in South America and the first molecular confirmation of the involvement of a caenogastropod in the life cycle of spirorchiids.