Parasite insight: assessing fitness costs, infection risks and foraging benefits relating to gastrointestinal nematodes in wild mammalian herbivores
| Autor: | Verity Bristow, Sarah Garnick, Ian Beveridge, Graeme Coulson, Jemma K. Cripps |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Risk
0106 biological sciences 0301 basic medicine Gastrointestinal Diseases Foraging Genetic Fitness Zoology Parasitism Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Parasite load General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Host-Parasite Interactions Predation 03 medical and health sciences Soay sheep Prevalence Animals Herbivory Nematode Infections Mammals Herbivore Host (biology) Articles Feeding Behavior 030104 developmental biology General Agricultural and Biological Sciences |
| Zdroj: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373:20170197 |
| ISSN: | 1471-2970 0962-8436 |
| Popis: | Mammalian herbivores are typically infected by parasitic nematodes, which are acquired through direct, faecal–oral transmission. These parasites can cause significant production losses in domestic livestock, but much less is known about impacts on wild mammalian hosts. We review three elements of parasitism from the host's perspective: fitness costs of infection, risks of infection during foraging and benefits of nutritious pasture. The majority of wildlife studies have been observational, but experimental manipulation is increasing. Treatment with anthelmintics to manipulate parasite load has revealed varied impacts of parasites on fitness variables across host species, but has not produced consistent evidence for parasite-induced anorexia or impaired body condition. Some experimental studies of infection risk have manipulated faecal contamination and detected faecal avoidance by hosts. Only two field studies have explored the trade-off between infection risk and nutritional benefit generated by avoidance of contaminated patches. Overall, field studies of costs, risks and benefits of the host–parasite relationship are limited and few have examined more than one of these elements. Parasitism has much in common with predation, and future insights into anti-parasite responses by wild hosts could be gained from the conceptual and technical developments in research on anti-predator behaviour. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours’. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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