Molecular identification of Lipoptena cervi and Lipoptena fortisetosa

Abstract

Deer keds (genus Lipoptena), are hematophagous parasites which typically infest wild ruminants like roe deer, red deer and moose. However, the information on the distribution and abundance of deer keds on their mammalian hosts is still scarce, especially in Lithuania. The aim of present study was to identify species of deer keds parasitizing cervids in Lithuania. The furs of cervids (roe deer, red deer and moose) harvested through the hunting were examined for deer keds. Among examined animals, moose were found the most heavily infested with deer keds (more than 2500 deer keds were removed from one adult male). Taxonomic identification of deer keds was based on description of morphological characteristics of pupae and adults and using molecular methods. Genomic DNA was isolated from pupae and wingless deer keds. Two set of primers as described by Lee et al. (2016) were used in nested PCR to amplify the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (cox 1) gene of deer keds. Our investigation demonstrates that in Lithuania cervids are infested with two species of deer keds. The partial COI gene sequences of deer ked obtained in this study showed 99% similarity with Lipoptena cervi and 97% with L. fortisetosa sequences deposited in GenBank. The present study is the first molecular identification of deer keds Lipoptena cervi and Lipoptena fortisetosa in Lithuania.