The prevalence, abundance, and molecular characterization of Lipoptena deer keds from cervids

The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence and abundance of deer keds on various cervids in Lithuania, to molecularly characterize the deer ked species based on mitochondrialCOI and16S rRNA genes, and to compare them withLipoptena species found in other countries. A total of 11,939 deer keds (Lipoptena cervi andLipoptena fortisetosa) was collected from the fur of 30 cervids in Lithuania between 2015 and 2019. The values of infestation with deer keds differed among the species of the hosts. Moose and red deer were more frequently infested withL. cervi than withL. fortisetosa, whileL. fortisetosa was found more often on roe deer. Phylogenetic analysis of theCOI and16S rRNA genes of fiveLipoptena species revealed 110 and 55 variable nucleotide positions, respectively. Among Lithuanian samples, threeCOI haplotypes ofL. cervi and three haplotypes ofL. fortisetosa were detected, while there was no variation observed in the16S rRNA sequences analyzed with one haplotype ofL. cervi and one haplotype ofL. fortisetosa. This is the first study onL. cervi andL. fortisetosa parasitizing cervids and the first molecular characterization of these deer ked species in Lithuania.
Source: Journal of Vector Ecology - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research