Abstract
Examination of blood films as part of a study to assess the health status of the southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus (Shaw) in Western Australia revealed the gamonts of a haemogregarine parasite in some samples, the first to be recognised in a bandicoot in this state. Light microscope morphological characteristics and partial sequence of the 18S rRNA gene were used to describe these organisms. Morphological characters did not differentiate the organism in the current study from previously reported Hepatozoon peramelis (Welsh & Dalyell, 1909). Phylogenetic analysis has not previously been reported for any species of Hepatozoon from Australian marsupials and consequently could not be used to confirm the identity of the organism in the current study as that described in the 1900s. If this organism is H. peramelis, then it has a wide distribution, being found in three species of bandicoot, in western and eastern Australia and the in island state of Tasmania.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Mr B. Cooper for assistance with trapping animals and the staff of the clinical pathology diagnostic laboratory at Murdoch University for assistance with analysis of blood samples. We thank Dr D.M. Spratt for his valuable comments that improved the manuscript.
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Wicks, R.M., Spencer, P.B.S., Moolhuijzen, P. et al. Morphological and molecular characteristics of a species of Hepatozoon Miller, 1908 (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina) from the blood of Isoodon obesulus (Marsupialia: Peramelidae) in Western Australia. Syst Parasitol 65, 19–25 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-006-9036-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-006-9036-8