Details:

Alternative Title:
J Med Entomol
Personal Author:
Graham, Christine B. ; Eisen, Rebecca J. ; Belthoff, James R.
Graham, Christine B. ; Eisen, Rebecca J. ; Belthoff, James R. Less -
Description:
Pulex irritans L. is a cosmopolitan flea species that infests a wide variety of hosts. In North America it generally parasitizes large wild mammals, but in the Pacific Northwest an association has emerged between P. irritans and the western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea). While investigators have recognized this association for decades, it has not been clear if P. irritans feeds on burrowing owls, or if the owls serve exclusively as phoretic hosts. Here we describe using a real-time assay that was originally developed to identify bloodmeals in Ugandan cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis Bouché) to detect burrowing owl DNA in P. irritans collected from burrowing owls in southern Idaho. Of 50 fleas tested, 12 had no detectable vertebrate bloodmeal. The remaining 38 (76%) contained burrowing owl DNA. The assay did not detect vertebrate DNA in unfed fleas exposed to owl or mouse pelts and is therefore unlikely to detect DNA in fleas from vertebrates that have served exclusively as phoretic hosts. We conclude that P. irritans feeds on burrowing owls. We discuss the potential implications of this finding for burrowing owl conservation and enzootic plague dynamics.
Subjects:
[+]
Animals Article Athene Cunicularia Bloodmeal Identification Burrowing Owl Feeding Behavior Female Flea Host-Parasite Interactions Male Mice Pulex Irritans Siphonaptera Strigiformes
Source:
J Med Entomol. 53(2):446-450
Pubmed ID:
26545716
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC5572895
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:00c3202ba226702a5d68401356d2a9bb3bbb24833cee3c240d7a8e41251e772c
Download URL:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/47803/cdc_47803_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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