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High prevalence of chigger mite infection in a forest-specialist frog with evidence of parasite-related granulomatous myositis

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Abstract

Amphibians are hosts for a wide variety of micro- and macro-parasites. Chigger mites from the Hannemania genus are known to infect a wide variety of amphibian species across the Americas. In Chile, three species (H. pattoni, H. gonzaleacunae and H. ortizi) have been described infecting native anurans; however, neither impacts nor the microscopic lesions associated with these parasites have been described. Here, we document 70% prevalence of chigger mite infection in Eupsophus roseus and absence of infection in Rhinoderma darwinii in the Nahuelbuta Range, Chile. Additionally, we describe the macroscopic and microscopic lesions produced by H. ortizi in one of these species, documenting previously undescribed lesions (granulomatous myositis) within the host’s musculature. These findings highlight that further research to better understand the impacts of chigger mite infection on amphibians is urgently required in Chile and elsewhere.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Rufford Foundation through grants No. 14460-1 and No. 19017-2 (to AV-S), Dirección General de Investigación y Doctorados, Universidad Andrés Bello, through grants No. DI-582-14/I (to AV-S) and No. DI-53-11/R (to CS-A), and FONDECYT Iniciación No. 11140902 (to CS-A).

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Author notes

  1. Andrew A. Cunningham and Claudio Soto-Azat contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación para la Sustentabilidad and Programa de Doctorado en Medicina de la Conservación, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, República 252, Santiago, Chile

    Mario Alvarado-Rybak, Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez, Aitor Cevidanes, Alexandra Peñafiel-Ricaurte, Andrew A. Cunningham & Claudio Soto-Azat

  2. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK

    Mario Alvarado-Rybak, Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez, Alexandra Peñafiel-Ricaurte & Andrew A. Cunningham

  3. ONG Ranita de Darwin, Nataniel Cox 152, Santiago, Chile

    Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez, David E. Uribe-Rivera, Andrew A. Cunningham & Claudio Soto-Azat

  4. Nahuelbuta Natural, Jerónimo Trettel 105, Cañete, Chile

    Edgardo Flores

Authors
  1. Mario Alvarado-Rybak
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  2. Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez
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  3. Aitor Cevidanes
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  4. Alexandra Peñafiel-Ricaurte
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  5. David E. Uribe-Rivera
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  6. Edgardo Flores
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  7. Andrew A. Cunningham
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  8. Claudio Soto-Azat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez.

Ethics declarations

The study was conducted in accordance with the Chilean law under permits No. 5666/2013, No. 230/2015 and No. 212/2016 of the Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero de Chile and No. 026/2013 and No. 11/2015 IX of the Corporación Nacional Forestal de Chile. This research project was approved by the Animal Welfare Committee at the Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile (No. 13/2015) and by the Zoological Society of London’s Ethics Committee (WLE709).

Conflict of interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Section Editor: Boris R. Krasnov

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Alvarado-Rybak, M., Valenzuela-Sánchez, A., Cevidanes, A. et al. High prevalence of chigger mite infection in a forest-specialist frog with evidence of parasite-related granulomatous myositis. Parasitol Res 117, 1643–1646 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5822-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5822-x

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