Avian haemosporidia are a group of vector-borne hemoparasites that are non-pathogenic to native bird hosts; however, some species/lineages cause severe disease or death in poultry and non-native birds. We investigated haemosporidian parasites in wild bird carcasses collected from four prefectures in eastern Japan. DNA was extracted from the liver, and the haemosporidian cytochrome b gene was amplified by nested PCR followed by direct sequencing. Of the 40 bird samples belonging to 25 species, 12 haemosporidian lineages were detected: four from Plasmodium, one from Haemoproteus, and seven from Leucocytozoon. Of these 12, two Leucocytozoon lineages were suspected to be novel. Leucocytozoon lineage TUMER02 was first detected in Japan. Six lineages were detected among the six novel host bird species.
Keywords: Japan; cytochrome b gene; haemosporidia; wild bird.