Ehrlichia spp. are obligatory intracellular microorganisms that infect hematopoietic, endothelial or blood cells of mammals. Ticks are the only vectors of these agents in nature. To date, the role of birds and their associated ticks as reservoirs of ehrlichiae remains almost unexplored. In this study, we performed a molecular screening for bacteria of Anaplasmataceae family in samples of spleen (n = 72) and lung (n = 17), recovered from 72 carcasses of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) in Brazil and Chile. One apparently unengorged tick (Ixodes uriae) was also collected while wandering upon one of the carcasses and submitted to molecular analyses as well. Through conventional and nested PCR protocols three genes (16S rRNA, dsb and groEL) of a new Ehrlichia sp. were partially characterized upon organs of three penguins and in the tick coming from Magdalena Island (Chile). First matches after BLASTn comparisons showed that our sequences share 99.4% (16S rRNA), 94.6% (groEL) and 79.3% (dsb) of identity with “Candidatus Ehrlichia ornithorhynchi”, Ehrlichia sp. NS101 and Ehrlichia canis CCZ, respectively. Matrixes of genetic distance including other representatives of the Ehrlichia genus point a 99.4%, 94.0%, and 80.0% of identity with 16S rRNA, groEL and dsb genes from Ehrlichia sp. It25, Ehrlichia sp. NS101, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis San Louis, respectively. A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Anaplasmataceae 16S rRNA gene places the detected Ehrlichia sp. into a group with Ehrlichia sp. BAT and Ehrlichia sp. Natal. Although depicting different topologies, Bayesian unrooted phylogenetic trees constructed for groEL and dsb genes position this Ehrlichia sp. into well-supported branches, which reinforces the finding of a new taxon. For the moment, any pathogenic effect of this new Ehrlichia sp. on penguins is still unknown. However, this fact becomes important to assess from a conservation point of view since populations of Magellanic penguins are currently threatened and in an ongoing decrease.

埃里希氏菌 是感染哺乳动物的造血，内皮或血细胞的必不可少的细胞内微生物。壁虱是自然界中这些媒介的唯一媒介。迄今为止，鸟类及其相关壁虱作为埃希氏菌的宿主的作用几乎尚未被发现。在这项研究中，我们对从巴西和智利的72具麦哲伦企鹅（Spheniscus magellanicus）尸体中回收的脾脏（n = 72）和肺部（n = 17）样品中的无核菌科细菌进行了分子筛查。在一只尸体上徘徊时，还收集了一个明显未膨化的tick（Ixodes uriae），并进行了分子分析。通过常规和嵌套式PCR方案，三个基因（16S rRNA，dsb和groEL）的新Ehrlichia sp。在三个企鹅的器官上以及从马格达莱纳岛（智利）传来的the中有部分特征。比较的BLASTn后第一场比赛表明，我们的序列99.4％的份额（的16S rRNA），94.6％（groEL基因）和79.3％（DSB以“身份的）暂定埃立克体ornithorhynchi”，埃立克体属。NS101和犬埃里希犬分别为CCZ 。遗传距离矩阵（包括埃希氏菌属的其他代表）指出与埃希氏菌属的16S rRNA，groEL和dsb基因具有99.4％，94.0％和80.0％的同一性。25，埃里希氏菌 NS101和查菲埃立克体圣路易斯，分别。贝母科16S rRNA基因的贝叶斯系统发育分析将检出的埃里希氏菌（Ehrlichia sp。）与Ehrlichia sp。组成一个小组。英美烟草公司和埃里希氏菌。纳塔尔 尽管描述了不同的拓扑结构，但为groEL和dsb基因构建的贝叶斯无根系统发生树将这种Ehrlichia sp定位。进入支持良好的分支机构，从而加强了对新分类单元的发现。目前，这种新的埃希氏菌病的任何致病作用sp。关于企鹅仍是未知数。但是，从保护的角度出发，评估这一事实变得很重要，因为麦哲伦企鹅的数量目前正处于威胁之中，并且正在不断减少。