Abundance of deer keds among different species of cervids and their infection with Bartonella spp. in Lithuania

Abstract

Deer keds from genus Lipoptena are bloodsucking ectoparasites which typically infest wild ruminants. However, the information on the distribution and abundance of deer keds on their mammalian hosts is still scarce, especially in Lithuania. Few years ago Lipoptena cervi has been confirmed as vector of some Bartonella species. This study represents abundance of deer keds from cervids with the presence of Bartonella pathogens in Lithuania. The furs of cervids such as roe deer, red deer and moose harvested through the hunting or founded road kill during 2015-2017 were examined for deer keds. Taxonomic identification of deer keds was based on description of morphological characteristics of adults and sequence analysis of mitochondrial COI gene. Our investigation demonstrates that cervids in Lithuania are infested with two different species of deer keds Lipoptena cervi and L. fortisetosa. Intensity of infestation was the highest in moose (Alces alces) and varied from 374 to 2981 ectoparasites per host. PCR and sequence analysis of rpoB gene and 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region (ITS) were used for detection and molecular characterization of Bartonella spp. in deer keds. Bartonella DNA was detected in both species of deer keds with high prevalence (more than 90%). Bartonella strains detected in deer keds were heterogenetic and showed 96-99 similarity with B. schoenbuchensis, B. chomelii and B. capreoli.