Screening wild birds for tick-borne zoonotic pathogens in Portugal

Loureiro, Filipa; Mesquita, João R.; Cardoso, Luis; Santos-Silva, S.; Moreira, G.; Bento, J. T.; Silva, F.; Barradas, P. F.; Matos, M.; Matos, Ana Cristina; Coelho, A. C.

Publication

Screening wild birds for tick-borne zoonotic pathogens in Portugal

2025Journal article

datacite.subject.fos	Ciências Agrárias::Ciências Veterinárias
dc.contributor.author	Loureiro, Filipa
dc.contributor.author	Mesquita, João R.
dc.contributor.author	Cardoso, Luis
dc.contributor.author	Santos-Silva, S.
dc.contributor.author	Moreira, G.
dc.contributor.author	Bento, J. T.
dc.contributor.author	Silva, F.
dc.contributor.author	Barradas, P. F.
dc.contributor.author	Matos, M.
dc.contributor.author	Matos, Ana Cristina
dc.contributor.author	Coelho, A. C.
dc.date.accessioned	2025-10-17T15:52:18Z
dc.date.available	2025-10-17T15:52:18Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.description	The authors would like to thank the teams at CRAS-HVUTAD, CRASSA and PBG for their cooperation in collecting the samples. We are also very grateful to the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), University of Porto. Sérgio Santos-Silva thanks Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) for their financial support of his PhD work under the scholarship 2021.09461.BD contract through the Maria de Sousa 2021 program. Jaqueline T. Bento was supported by the project PRR-C05-i03-I-000190—RumiRes: Epidemiological Surveillance and Awareness of Antimicrobial Resistance and Drug Residues in Small Ruminants in the Central Region.
dc.description.abstract	Wild birds may be involved in the transmission of agents of infectious diseases, including zoonoses, a circumstance which raises a number of public and animal health issues. Migratory bird species play a significant role in the introduction of tick-borne pathogens to new geographic areas, contributing to the dissemination of various etiological agents. This preliminary study aimed to assess the occurrence of four potentially zoonotic pathogens (Hepatozoon spp., Borrelia spp., Babesia spp. and Theileria spp.) in the wild birds of Portugal. Blood and tissue samples were taken from 103 birds admitted at wildlife rehabilitation centers. Through the use of conventional PCR, our findings indicate no evidence of the circulation of these pathogens among the studied bird populations in the region. In the One Health context, it is relevant to understand how faraway avian populations play a role in the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Further molecular studies are needed to deepen the knowledge of avian piroplasmosis, borreliosis and hepatozoonosis.	por
dc.description.sponsorship	This work was supported by projects UIDB/00772/2020 (doi: 10.54499/UIDB/00772/2020) and LA/P/0059/2020, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
dc.identifier.citation	LOUREIRO, F. [et al.] (2025) - Screening wild birds for tick-borne zoonotic pathogens in Portugal. Pathogens. 14(1), 75. DOI: 10.3390/pathogens14010075
dc.identifier.doi	10.3390/pathogens14010075
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/10333
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.peerreviewed	yes
dc.publisher	MDPI
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Babesia
dc.subject	Borrelia
dc.subject	Hepatozoon
dc.subject	PCR
dc.subject	Piroplasms
dc.subject	Portugal
dc.subject	Theileria
dc.title	Screening wild birds for tick-borne zoonotic pathogens in Portugal	eng
dc.type	journal article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
oaire.citation.issue	75
oaire.citation.title	Pathogens
oaire.citation.volume	14(1)
oaire.version	http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
person.familyName	Matos
person.givenName	Ana
person.identifier.ciencia-id	2711-E07A-FE45
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0001-9709-862X
person.identifier.rid	K-6664-2013
person.identifier.scopus-author-id	55626078200
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	b6aa356b-8fa0-42be-af99-b34818a15cdc
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	b6aa356b-8fa0-42be-af99-b34818a15cdc