History of the Study of Avian Haemosporidian Parasites in A Neotropical Country: Venezuela

Authors: Romero J and Silva-Iturriza A*

DOI: 10.23880/izab-16000452

Volume 6, Issue 2

Abstract

Venezuela has a remarkable presence of endemic birds from the Neotropical region. Therefore, the study of avian haemosporidian parasites (Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon) in Venezuela should be a priority task for conservation projects, as well as for understanding adaptive processes of the parasite-host-vector triad. The objective of this mini-review is to rescue the most relevant contributions of the study of these parasites in Venezuela and the potentialities derived from them. The greatest contribution reported so far comes from a series of parasitological diagnoses in birds carried out from 1972 to 1990. From these studies, a blood smear collection of wild and captive birds infected with haemosporidian parasites was created (approximately 23000 blood smear), describing 15 species of these parasites. This extensive collection of blood smears could be used as source material to answer many questions, such as the large-scale spatiotemporal distribution patterns of avian haemosporidian parasites in Venezuela.

Keywords: Plasmodium; Haemoproteus; Leucocytozoon; Endemism; Bird

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