 Parasites include the sucking lice Nirmus cuspidiculus and Pediculus ralli , the tick Ixodes frontalis , and the louse fly Ornithomyia avicularia . The water rail can be infected by the avian influenza virus and the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi , carried by Ixodes ticks , which is also a human pathogen causing Lyme disease . Three lice , Fulicoffula rallina , Pseudomenopon scopulacorne and Rallicola cuspidatus discovered on dead water rails in 2005 on the Faroe Islands were all species that had not been found on the archipelago previously . The parasitic flatworm Ophthalmophagus nasciola was found in one rail 's nasal sinus , and at least three species of feather mite have been detected on the plumage . The louse Philopterus ralli and the nematode Strongyloides avium have been found on the subspecies R. a. indicus . The eastern subspecies is also one of the many intermediate hosts of another nematode , Gnathostoma spinigerum , which causes human gnathostomiasis , a disease found in Thailand , Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia . The nematode 's first @-@ stage hosts are copepods of the genus Cyclops , which are consumed directly or indirectly by a wide variety of vertebrates before maturing in the third and final host , a carnivorous mammal . The rail is therefore unlikely to be a source of human gnathostomiasis , which is normally caused by consuming raw or undercooked infected poultry , pork , freshwater fish , or by drinking water contaminated with infected Cyclops . 
