The presence of wingless bat flies (Eucampsipoda africana) parasitizing Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) in Kagera, Tanzania

Bat ectoparasites are important components of bat communities and have close ecological relationships with their hosts. Eucampsipoda africana (E. africana) is a wingless bat fly that parasitizes Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus), but its occurrence and host association have received little attention in Tanzania. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in which 269 bat flies were collected from Egyptian fruit bats and analyzed using morphological identification, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequencing, and blood-meal analysis. Out of the 193 bats examined, 37.3% (72/193; 95% CI: 30.5-44.5%) of the bats were infested with at least one bat fly. Binary logistic regression showed that age, sex, and village were significantly associated with fly infestation. Adults had higher odds of infestation than juveniles (OR = 4.59, 95% CI: 1.87-11.28), while males had lower odds than females (OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.25-0.96). Infestation also differed significantly among villages. COI sequences showed 100% nucleotide identity with reference E. africana sequences available in GenBank, and phylogenetic analysis clustered the Tanzanian samples with previously reported E. africana in Zambia. Blood-meal analysis corroborated the field assumption that these flies have an association with Rousettus aegyptiacus (R. aegyptiacus). These findings represent the first molecular confirmation of E. africana associated with R. aegyptiacus and of its prevalence in Kagera Region-Tanzania.