No abstract

Fasciolosis is a worldwide spread parasitosis mainly caused by the trematode Fasciola hepatica. This disease is particularly important for public health in tropical regions, but it can also affect the economies of many developed countries due to large infections in domestic animals. Although several studies have tried to understand the How to cite this article: Vázquez AA, Sabourin E, Alda P, et al. Genetic diversity and relationships of the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica (Trematoda) with native and introduced definitive and intermediate hosts.

Breeding birds in agricultural landscapes have declined considerably since the 1950s and the beginning of agricultural intensification in Europe. Given the increasing pressure on agricultural land, it is necessary to identify conservation measures that consume little productive land. We tested the hypothesis that field margins represent substitute habitats for bird species in agricultural wetlands. We monitored bird species in 86 crop fields in rice paddy landscapes of Camargue (southern France), a wetland of international importance for birds. We investigated whether the area of three types of field margins (grass strips, hedgerows and reed strips) within a 500 m buffer around each studied crop field had an effect on the abundance of three groups of birds defined based on their primary habitat (reedbeds, grasslands, and forest edge species). We controlled for the area of each semi-natural habitat (wetlands, grasslands, and woodlands), crop diversity and mean crop field size. Our study confirms that bird guilds are favored by the cover of their primary habitat but are also influenced by the cover of field margins. Reedbed birds are favored by the cover of wetlands and reed strips, grassland birds are favored by the cover of grasslands and wetlands and negatively impacted by the cover of woodlands and hedgerows, while forest edge birds are favored by the cover of hedgerows and negatively impacted by the cover of reed strips. These results suggest that field margins may represent substitute habitats for reedbed and forest edge bird species and highlight their importance for biodiversity conservation in wetland agricultural landscapes. However, our results also suggest that increasing the area of hedgerows and reed strips may have a negative effect on grassland birds and forest edge birds, respectively. Recommendations for field margin management in agricultural wetlands should therefore be tailored to local conservation priorities.

Galewski (2023) Field margins as substitute habitat for the conservation of birds in agricultural wetlands , Peer Community Journal, 3: e66.

Babesia sp. YLG has been recently described in Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) chicks and belongs to the Peircei clade in the new classification of Piroplasms. Here, we studied Babesia sp. YLG vectorial transmission by ticks in the simplified environment of a single seabird breeding colony where the Yellow-legged gull is the sole vertebrate host, Ornithodoros maritimus (syn. Alectorobius maritimus, Mans et al. 2021) the sole tick species, and Babesia sp. YLG is the unique blood parasite species previously detected in gull chicks in the colony. We collected ticks over four years, maintained certain individuals through moulting or oviposition, and dissected fresh ticks to isolate different organs and test for the presence of the parasite using molecular assays. We report the first strong evidence of a Piroplasmidae transmitted by a soft tick. Indeed, Babesia sp. YLG DNA was detected in the salivary glands of nymphs, females and males, a necessary organ to infect for transmission to a new vertebrate host. Parasite DNA was also found in tick ovaries, which could indicate possible transovarial transmission. Our detection of Babesia sp. YLG DNA in several male testes and in endospermatophores, and notably in a parasite-free female (uninfected ovaries and salivary glands), raise the interesting possibility of sexual transmission from infected males to uninfected females. Future work in this system will now need to focus on the degree to which the parasite can be maintained locally by ticks and the epidemiological consequences of infection for both O. maritimus and the avian host.