Traumatic myiasis in wild animals admitted to a rehabilitation center in southeastern Turkey.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVES

Traumatic myiasis develops when dipteran larvae colonize pre-existing wounds and may complicate the management of injured wildlife. Wildlife-associated cases remain insufficiently documented, particularly in reptiles and wild ungulates. This study aimed to characterize traumatic myiasis in wild animals admitted to a rehabilitation center in southeastern Turkey and to identify the causative dipteran species using integrated morphological and molecular approaches.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Eight wild animals with traumatic myiasis admitted between December 2020 and September 2022 were evaluated. Larvae collected during routine wound management were identified morphologically. Forty third-instar larvae, five from each clinical case, underwent mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequencing. Following quality control and within-case redundancy assessment, 11 representative study sequences were retained for comparative analyses. Species assignments were evaluated using sequence similarity, pairwise nucleotide divergence, and maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 132 third-instar larvae were recovered. Four dipteran species were identified: Lucilia sericata, Calliphora vomitoria, Calliphora vicina, and Wohlfahrtia magnifica. L. sericata was detected in six cases, and two common buzzards had mixed-species infestations. The 11 representative study sequences showed 99.52-100.00% identity to verified GenBank references and were deposited under accession numbers OR642793-OR642803. The final 624-bp phylogenetic dataset comprised 16 sequences (11 study sequences, four species-specific references, and one outgroup) and supported the morphological assignments. Traumatic myiasis was also documented in Rafetus euphraticus and Capra aegagrus, representing potentially novel or rarely documented host associations.

CONCLUSION

Combined morphological examination and COI-based molecular analysis provided concordant species-level identification of myiasis-causing larvae in this small opportunistic wildlife case series. The findings expand descriptive knowledge of traumatic myiasis in wildlife from southeastern Turkey.