Abstract
The Carolina chickadee, Poecile carolinensis Audubon is a relatively small songbird belonging to the tit and chickadee family Paridae. Feces from three P. carolinensis from Polk County, Arkansas, USA, and a single P. carolinensis in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, USA, were collected and examined for coccidia; the latter bird was found to be passing a new species of Isospora. Oöcysts of Isospora oklahomaensis n. sp. are subspheroidal to ovoidal with a smooth to slightly-pitted bi-layered wall, measure (L × W) 32.1 × 28.3 µm, and have a length/width (L/W) ratio of 1.1; a micropyle and oöcyst residuum were absent but a bilobed and refractile polar granule is present. Sporocysts are ellipsoidal and measure 18.4 × 11.8 µm, L/W 1.6; a prominent Stieda body is present as well as a distinct sub-Stieda body. The sporocyst residuum is composed of an irregular mass of granules lying between and dispersed among the sporozoites. This is the first coccidian described from the Carolina chickadee and, most importantly, only the second described from a member of the Paridae, worldwide.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Drs. Scott L. Gardner and Gabor Racz (HWML) for expert curatorial assistance and Bruno P. Berto (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for helpful advice on bird coccidians. CTM thanks Dr. Laurence M. Hardy (OMBS) for providing gratis housing and laboratory space.
Funding
This study was funded, in part, by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (2P20GM103432), National Institutes of Health (NIH) to RSS. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
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All applicable institutional, national and international guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation provided Scientific Collecting Permits to CTM.
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McAllister, C.T., Seville, R.S. A new species of Isospora (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from Carolina chickadee (Passeriformes: Paridae), from Oklahoma, USA. Syst Parasitol 98, 589–594 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-021-09999-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-021-09999-9