Parasite detection and quantification in avian blood is dependent on storage medium and duration

Studies of parasites in wild animal populations often rely on molecular methods to both detect and quantify infections. However, method accuracy is likely to be influenced by the sampling approach taken prior to nucleic acid extraction. Avian Haemosporidia are studied primarily through the screening of host blood, and a range of storage mediums are available for the short- to long-term preservation of samples. Previous research has suggested that storage medium choice may impact the accuracy of PCR-based parasite detection, however, this relationship has never been explicitly tested and may be exacerbated by the duration of sample storage. These considerations could also be especially critical for sensitive molecular methods used to quantify infection (qPCR). To test the effect of storage medium and duration on Plasmodium detection and quantification, we split blood samples collected from wild birds across three medium types (filter paper, Queen’s lysis buffer, and 96% ethanol) and carr..., ,

野生动物种群的寄生虫研究通常依托分子生物学方法实现感染的检测与定量。然而，核酸提取前采用的采样方案可能对检测方法的准确性产生影响。禽血孢子虫（Avian Haemosporidia）的相关研究主要通过宿主血液筛查开展，目前已有多类保存介质可用于样本的短期至长期保存。既往研究提示，保存介质的选择可能会影响基于聚合酶链式反应（Polymerase Chain Reaction，PCR）的寄生虫检测精度，但这一关联尚未得到明确验证，且样本存储时长可能进一步加剧该效应。上述考量对于用于感染定量的高灵敏度分子检测方法（实时荧光定量PCR，qPCR）而言尤为关键。为探究存储介质及存储时长对疟原虫（Plasmodium）检测与定量的影响，我们将从野生鸟类采集的血液样本均分至三类保存介质中：滤纸、昆氏裂解液（Queen’s lysis buffer）以及96%乙醇，并