title: Trichomonosis in Eurasian sparrowhawks in the Czech Republic.
abstract: Pigeon, doves and songbirds are hosts of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae (Rivolta, 1878), which causes avian trichomonosis. Raptors are infected when they digest infected prey. A high percentage of the diet of Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (Linnaeus) is comprised of birds. During the breeding season 2012 and 2013, we clinically tested 298 nestling Eurasian sparrowhawks from urban and rural areas of the Czech Republic for the presence of trichomonads. Sparrowhawk nestlings in the urban area were more infected (32.9%) than in the rural area (12.2%) in 2012 (χ(2) = 6.184, P = 0.045). The number of infected nestlings dropped in the urban area (5.4%) and remained similar in the rural area (16.6%) in 2013. Sequences of ITS region and SSU rDNA confirmed that the isolates from infected sparrowhawk nestlings belonged to Trichomonas gallinae.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic;
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kunca
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Pavla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Smejkalova
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cepicka
keywords: Accipiter nisus; ITS region; SSU rDNA; Trichomonas gallinae; avian trichomonosis