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BackgroundIn Europe, the life-cycle of Echinococcus multilocularis is predominantly sylvatic, involving red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) as the main definitive hosts and rodents such as muskrats and arvicolids as intermediate hosts. The parasite is the etiological agent of human alveolar echinococcosis, a malignant zoonotic disease caused by the accidental ingestion of eggs shed by definitive hosts in their faeces. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of E. multilocularis in red foxes and raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and to study the environmental factors favouring the perpetuation of the parasite in Latvia.MethodsA total of 538 red foxes and 407 raccoon dogs were collected across Latvia from 2010 to 2015. The sedimentation and counting technique was used for collecting E. multilocularis adult worms from fox and raccoon dog intestines. The morphological identification of the parasite was confirmed by molecular analysis.ResultsThe prevalence of E. multilocularis was significantly higher in foxes (17.1%; intensity of infection 1–7,050 worms) (P < 0.001) than in raccoon dogs (8.1%; intensity of infection 5–815 worms). In foxes, a significant positive correlation (r (10) = 0.7952, P = 0.001) was found between parasite prevalence and the intensity of infection. A positive relationship (R s = 0.900, n = 5, P = 0.037) between parasite prevalence and precipitation was also observed. In raccoon dogs, a significant negative relationship (F (1,8) = 9.412, P = 0.015) between animal density and parasite prevalence, and a significant positive relationship (F (1,8) = 7.869, P = 0.023) between parasite prevalence and agricultural land cover, were detected.ConclusionsThe results of this study confirm the red fox as the most important definitive host of E. multilocularis and, consequently, as the main target for control programmes in the Baltic countries. Raccoon dogs seem to play a secondary role in the life-cycle of E. multilocularis within the investigated European region.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1891-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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1Evaluating potential effects of conservation and management actions in marine reserves requires an 2 understanding not only of the biological processes in the reserve, and between the reserve and the 3 surrounding ocean, but also of the effects of the wildlife on the wider political and economic 4 processes. Such evaluations are made considerably more difficult in the absence of good ecological 5 data from within reserves or consistent data between reserves and the wider marine environment, 6as is the case in much of mainland Ecuador. We present an approach to evaluate the effects of a 7 wide range of possible management processes on the marine ecology of the Machalilla National 8Park, as well as that of the surrounding marine environments (including recently established 9 reserves) and related socio-economic pressures. The approach is based on Bayesian belief networks, 10 and as such can be used in the presence of sparse data from multiple and disparate sources. We 11show that currently there are no observable benefits of marine reserves to reef and fish community 12 structure, and that high value (normally predatory) fish, which are sought by fishers and shark 13 finners are frequently absent from reef systems. We demonstrate that there is broad similarity in 14 ecological communities between most shallow marine systems, in or out of marine reserves, and 15 predict there can be a strong effect from actions outside the reserve on what is present within it. We 16 also show that establishing a stronger link between (responsible) ecotourism and the marine 17 environment could reduce the need for income in other more destructive areas, such as fishing and 18 particularly shark finning, and discuss ways that high value, low impact eco-tourism could be 19 introduced. 20 21

Scleractinian corals are engineers on coral reefs that provide both structural complexity as habitat and sustenance for other reef-associated organisms via the release of organic and inorganic matter. However, coral reefs are facing multiple pressures from climate change and other stressors, which can result in mass coral bleaching and mortality events. Mass mortality of corals results in enhanced release of organic matter, which can cause significant alterations to reef biochemical and recycling processes. There is little known about how long these nutrients are retained within the system, for instance, within the tissues of other benthic organisms. We investigated changes in nitrogen isotopic signatures (δ15N) of macroalgal tissues (a) ~ 1 year after a bleaching event in the Seychelles and (b) ~ 3 months after the peak of a bleaching event in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. In the Seychelles, there was a strong association between absolute loss in both total coral cover and branching coral cover and absolute increase in macroalgal δ15N between 2014 and 2017 (adjusted r2 = 0.79, p = 0.004 and adjusted r2 = 0.86, p = 0.002, respectively). In Mo’orea, a short-term transplant experiment found a significant increase in δ15N in Sargassum mangarevense after specimens were deployed on a reef with high coral mortality for ~ 3 weeks (p < 0.05). We suggest that coral-derived nutrients can be retained within reef nutrient cycles, and that this can affect other reef-associated organisms over both short- and long-term periods, especially opportunistic species such as macroalgae. These species could therefore proliferate on reefs that have experienced mass mortality events, because they have been provided with both space and nutrient subsidies by the death and decay of corals.