Introduction
Several emerging arboviruses including West Nile Virus (WNV), Zika virus and Bagaza virus (BAGV) have expanded their distribution over the past decade, causing major outbreaks in humans and/or animals (Benzarti et al., 2019; Pierson & Diamond, 2020). BAGV is a flavivirus in the Ntaya serocomplex, closely related to Israel turkey meningoencephalomyelitis virus (ITV) (Fernández-Pinero et al. , 2014), first detected in a Culex mosquito pool in the Bagaza district of Central African Republic in 1966 (Digoutte., 1978). In 2010, BAGV emerged in Europe causing an outbreak in red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa ) and ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus ) (Agüero et al., 2011; Gamino et al., 2013) in Southern Spain and since has been shown to co-circulate with WNV and Usutu virus (USUV) (Llorente et al., 2013). In 2016 it caused an outbreak in Himalayan monal pheasants (Lophophorus impejanus ) in South Africa (Steyn et al., 2019) and it was detected in Culex genus mosquitoes in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 and Namibia in 2021 (Camp et al., 2019; Guggemos et al., 2021).
Although temporal and spatial co-circulation and coinfection of avian malaria parasites and WNV or USUV has been documented, both in birds and mosquito vectors (Hughes et al., 2010; Rouffaer et al., 2018), interaction of these Flaviviruses and malaria parasites during potential consecutive or coinfections of an avian host is not yet understood. Here we report a mortality event related to coinfection of red -legged partridges with Plasmodium spp. and BAGV.