Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Parasite Fauna (parasite + fauna)
Selected AbstractsNot everything is everywhere: the distance decay of similarity in a marine host,parasite systemJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2009Ana Pérez-del-Olmo Abstract Aim, We test the similarity,distance decay hypothesis on a marine host,parasite system, inferring the relationships from abundance data gathered at the lowest scale of parasite community organization (i.e. that of the individual host). Location, Twenty-two seasonal samples of the bogue Boops boops (Teleostei: Sparidae) were collected at seven localities along a coastal positional gradient from the northern North-East Atlantic to the northern Mediterranean coast of Spain. Methods, We used our own, taxonomically consistent, data on parasite communities. The variations in parasite composition and structure with geographical and regional distance were examined at two spatial scales, namely local parasite faunas and component communities, using both presence,absence (neighbour joining distance) and abundance (Mahalanobis distance) data. The influence of geographical and regional distance on faunal/community divergence was assessed through the permutation of distance matrices. Results, Our results revealed that: (1) geographical and regional distances do not affect the species composition in the system under study at the higher scales; (2) geographical distance between localities contributes significantly to the decay of similarity estimated from parasite abundance at the lowest scale (i.e. the individual host); (3) the structured spatial patterns are consistent in time but not across seasons; and (4) a restricted clade of species (the ,core' species of the bogue parasite fauna) contributes substantially to the observed patterns of both community homogenization and differentiation owing to the strong relationship between local abundance and regional distribution of species. Main conclusions, The main factors that tend to homogenize the composition of parasite communities of bogue at higher regional scales are related to the dispersal of parasite colonizers across host populations, which we denote as horizontal neighbourhood colonization. In contrast, the spatial structure detectable in quantitative comparisons only, is related to a vertical neighbourhood colonization associated with larval dispersal on a local level. The stronger decline with distance in the spatial synchrony of the assemblages of the ,core' species indicates a close-echoing environmental synchrony that declines with distance. Our results emphasize the importance of the parasite supracommunity (i.e. parasites that exploit all hosts in the ecosystem) to the decay of similarity with distance. [source] Local variation of haemoparasites and arthropod vectors, and intestinal protozoans in spiny mice (Acomys dimidiatus) from four montane wadis in the St Katherine Protectorate, Sinai, EgyptJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 1 2006A. Bajer Abstract Haemoparasite infections and infestations with potential arthropod vectors were assessed in spiny mice Acomys dimidiatus from four wadis in the arid montane region of the southern Sinai in Egypt in late summer 2000. Five taxa of haemoparasites (Haemobartonella spp. 80%, Hepatozoon sp. 20.6%, Trypanosoma acomys 17.5%, Bartonella spp. 2.5% and Babesia sp. 1.9%) were recorded. Additionally, infections with two intestinal protozoa, Cryptosporidium cf. parvum and Giardia sp., were quantified, both with similar prevalence (17.0 and 17.6%, respectively). 17.9% of mice carried fleas (Parapulex chephrensis and Xenopsylla dipodilli) and 32.1% had lice (Polyplax oxyrrhyncha and Polyplax brachyrrhycha combined). Marked differences in the prevalence and abundance of infections were detected between the four wadis, particularly with respect to T. acomys, Hepatozoon sp. and fleas, which were largely aggregated in just two of the four sites (Wadis Gharaba and Tlah). In contrast, the intestinal protozoa were more common, and abundance was higher, in Wadi El Arbaein. Intrinsic factors also contributed to a variation in prevalence, with strong age-dependent increases in the prevalence and abundance of Hepatozoon sp., higher mean species richness, prevalence of Cr. cf. parvum, and abundance of Giardia sp. and Hepatozoon sp. in female mice. Haemobartonella spp. showed an age-dependent reduction in abundance and higher abundance among male mice. A weak association was found between the prevalence of T. acomys and its putative flea vector. The single extrinsic factor in the study, site of capture, was more important than the intrinsic factors in explaining variation in the prevalence and abundance of haemoparasites, intestinal protozoa and arthropod vectors. In the high mountains of southern Sinai, the parasite fauna of spiny mice is distinct in each wadi, and hence we expect the parasites to exert spatially different co-evolutionary pressures on their hosts, with a resultant variation in host life histories. [source] Gastrointestinal parasites of the chimpanzee population introduced onto Rubondo Island National Park, TanzaniaAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Klára J. Petr, elková Abstract The release of any species into a novel environment can evoke transmission of parasites that do not normally parasitize the host as well as potentially introducing new parasites into the environment. Species introductions potentially incur such risks, yet little is currently known about the parasite fauna of introduced primate species over the long term. We describe the results of long-term monitoring of the intestinal parasite fauna of an unprovisioned, reproducing population of chimpanzees introduced 40 years earlier (1966,1969) onto Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria, Tanzania, a non-native habitat for chimpanzees. Two parasitological surveys (March 1997,October 1998 and October 2002,December 2005) identified Entamoeba spp. including E. coli, Iodamoeba buetschlii, Troglodytella abrassarti, Chilomastix mesnili, Trichuris sp., Anatrichosoma sp., Strongyloides spp., Strongylida fam. gen. sp., Enterobius anthropopitheci, Subulura sp., Ascarididae gen. sp., and Protospirura muricola. The parasite fauna of the Rubondo chimpanzees is similar to wild chimpanzees living in their natural habitats, but Rubondo chimpanzees have a lower prevalence of strongylids (9%, 3.8%) and a higher prevalence of E. anthropopitheci (8.6%, 17.9%) than reported elsewhere. Species prevalence was similar between our two surveys, with the exception of Strongyloides spp. being higher in the first survey. None of these species are considered to pose a serious health risk to chimpanzees, but continued monitoring of the population and surveys of the parasitic fauna of the two coinhabitant primate species and other animals, natural reservoir hosts of some of the same parasites, is important to better understand the dynamics of host,parasite ecology and potential long-term implications for chimpanzees introduced into a new habitat. Am. J. Primatol. 72:307,316, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Parasites of cultured and wild brown-marbled grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (Forsskĺl, 1775) in Lampung Bay, IndonesiaAQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 8 2010Sonja Rückert Abstract A total of 210 Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (brown-marbled grouper) was examined for parasites. During three consecutive seasons (two rainy and one dry season from 2002 to 2004), 35 specimens each taken from floating net cages of the National Sea Farming Development Centre (Balai Budidaya Laut) and from wild catches in Lampung Bay, South Sumatra, Indonesia were studied. Twenty-five (cultured grouper) and 30 (wild grouper) parasite species/taxa were identified, with an infracommunity ranging from one to nine (cultured) and three to 14 parasite species (wild), demonstrating a species-rich parasite fauna even in the cultured fish. Protozoans (1 species), microsporeans (1), myxozoans (1), digeneans (8), monogeneans (5), cestodes (3), nematodes (8), acanthocephalans (2) and crustaceans (6) were found. The most abundant parasites were the monogeneans Pseudorhabdosynochus epinepheli and Pseudorhabdosynochus lantauensis for both, cultured and wild grouper during all seasons. For the cultured fish, the prevalence of monoxenous ectoparasites (e.g. P. epinepheli, P. lantauensis, Capsalidae gen. et sp. indet., Benedenia epinepheli) was in most cases higher than that of heteroxenous endoparasites. This contrasts the wild grouper, where heteroxenous parasites such as Allopodocotyle epinepheli and Raphidascaris sp. occurred at a similar prevalence compared with the fairly abundant Pseudorhabdosynochus spp. No seasonality of infestation was observed for both cultured and wild fish. The high levels of infestation of potentially pathogenic monogeneans throughout the year could result in significant parasite outbreaks at the locality studied. [source] Not everything is everywhere: the distance decay of similarity in a marine host,parasite systemJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2009Ana Pérez-del-Olmo Abstract Aim, We test the similarity,distance decay hypothesis on a marine host,parasite system, inferring the relationships from abundance data gathered at the lowest scale of parasite community organization (i.e. that of the individual host). Location, Twenty-two seasonal samples of the bogue Boops boops (Teleostei: Sparidae) were collected at seven localities along a coastal positional gradient from the northern North-East Atlantic to the northern Mediterranean coast of Spain. Methods, We used our own, taxonomically consistent, data on parasite communities. The variations in parasite composition and structure with geographical and regional distance were examined at two spatial scales, namely local parasite faunas and component communities, using both presence,absence (neighbour joining distance) and abundance (Mahalanobis distance) data. The influence of geographical and regional distance on faunal/community divergence was assessed through the permutation of distance matrices. Results, Our results revealed that: (1) geographical and regional distances do not affect the species composition in the system under study at the higher scales; (2) geographical distance between localities contributes significantly to the decay of similarity estimated from parasite abundance at the lowest scale (i.e. the individual host); (3) the structured spatial patterns are consistent in time but not across seasons; and (4) a restricted clade of species (the ,core' species of the bogue parasite fauna) contributes substantially to the observed patterns of both community homogenization and differentiation owing to the strong relationship between local abundance and regional distribution of species. Main conclusions, The main factors that tend to homogenize the composition of parasite communities of bogue at higher regional scales are related to the dispersal of parasite colonizers across host populations, which we denote as horizontal neighbourhood colonization. In contrast, the spatial structure detectable in quantitative comparisons only, is related to a vertical neighbourhood colonization associated with larval dispersal on a local level. The stronger decline with distance in the spatial synchrony of the assemblages of the ,core' species indicates a close-echoing environmental synchrony that declines with distance. Our results emphasize the importance of the parasite supracommunity (i.e. parasites that exploit all hosts in the ecosystem) to the decay of similarity with distance. [source] | ||||||||||