Detection of avian malaria in wild birds at Trisik Beach of Yogyakarta, Java (Indonesia)

Avian haemosporidian (Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon) are abundant and widespread vector-borne parasites in birds. However, our knowledge is very limited. This study used a nested-PCR to detect the prevalence level of haematozoan parasites in wild bird at coastal area at Tisik Beach of Yogyakarta, Java Island, Indonesia. In total, 112 DNA samples of 22 species were used. Amplification of cyt-b mtDNA of birds at Trisik beach detected 11 out of 112 samples (9.8 %) of all the blood parasites. Only 5 species out of 22 wild bird species were infected by the avian malaria parasites. Meanwhile, only one out of 20 samples of domestic birds was infected. All positive samples sequenced consistently generated around 450 base pair nucleotides. Alignments of 12 sequences have revealed six parasite lineages in the wild bird at Trisik Beach of Yogyakarta, consist of five lineages for Plasmodium sp. and the rest respectively one lineages for Haemoproteus sp. and Leucocytozoon sp. The results of this study provide additional evidences for Plasmodium lineages that uniquely were only infected the Pintail Snipe, Javan Munia, and domestic duck, respectively one lineage, and two lineages in the Yellow Bittern. Meanwhile, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon were not uniquely infecting specific host.