Chronic lead intoxication decreases intestinal helminth species richness and infection intensity in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Prüter, Hanna; Franz, Mathias; Auls, Susanne; Czirják, Gábor Á.; Greben, O. B.; Greenwood, Alex D.; Lisitsyna, Olga I.; Syrota, Yaroslav; Sitko, Jiljí; Krone, Oliver

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.297

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…These fish farms currently consist of a network of 121 farmers using 13 km 2 of ponds in the region (Niederösterreichischer Teichwirteverband, 2021). An additional factor that reduces the biodiversity of intestinal helminths is chronic lead intoxication (Pruter et al, 2018). Lead levels in liver described by these authors are congruent with the levels in liver of mallards from Austria given by Plessl et al (2017), who reported at least 3.9% of the mallards showing acute lead pollution.…”

Section: Helminth Communitysupporting

confidence: 77%

Helminths of the mallardAnas platyrhynchosLinnaeus, 1758 from Austria, with emphasis on the morphological variability ofPolymorphus minutusGoeze, 1782

2021

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The mallard Anas platyrhynchos is the most abundant water bird species in Austria, but there is no record of its helminth community. Therefore, this work aimed to close that gap by recording and analysing the parasite community of a large number of birds from Austria for the first time. A total of 60 specimens shot by hunters in autumn were examined for intestinal parasites. The following taxa were recovered (prevalence given in parentheses): Cestoda: Diorchis sp. (31.7%) and Fimbriarioides intermedia (1.7%); Acanthocephala: Filicollis anatis (5%), Polymorphus minutus (30%) and one cystacanth unidentified (1.7%); Trematoda: Apatemon gracilis (3.3%), Echinostoma grandis (6.7%), Echinostoma revolutum (6.7%) and Notocotylus attenuatus (23.3%); Nematoda: Porrocaecum crassum (1.7%) and one not identified (1.7%). The frequency distribution of parasites showed a typical pattern in which 39 birds (65%) were either not parasitized or were harbouring up to five worms, whereas more intense infestations occurred in a lesser number of hosts. Compared to other studies from central and eastern Europe, an extremely depauperate helminth community, particularly of the cestodes and nematodes, was found. Polymorphus minutus was observed as having highly variable morphology and, therefore, molecular genetic characterization by DNA barcoding was carried out. Species identification was confirmed by comparing data with the reference cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene sequence from P. minutus available in GenBank.

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Section: Helminth Communitysupporting

confidence: 77%

Helminths of the mallardAnas platyrhynchosLinnaeus, 1758 from Austria, with emphasis on the morphological variability ofPolymorphus minutusGoeze, 1782

2021

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“…Accordingly, relationships between THg and immunity did not mediate the relationships between THg and infection, which likely indicates immunosuppression is not a causal mechanism. One alternative may involve contaminant-mediated pathogen mortality; for example, lead exposure likely caused helminth mortality in avian hosts (Prüter et al, 2018). As facultative intracellular pathogens, hemoplasmas and Bartonella spp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, effects may be difficult to detect if contaminant concentrations have low variance or are below toxicity thresholds (Fisk et al, 2005). Other examples suggest contaminants may instead decrease infection risks (Prüter et al, 2018), but the degree to which such patterns might be mediated by contaminant effects on immunity are unclear. Field-based assessments of how variable contaminant concentrations are associated with immunity and common pathogens are necessary to disentangle directional relationships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling interactions among mercury, immunity, and infection in a Neotropical bat community

Becker

Speer

Korstian

et al. 2020

Preprint

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381. Contaminants such as mercury are pervasive and can have immunosuppressive effects on 39 wildlife. Impaired immunity could be important for forecasting pathogen spillover risks, 40 as many land-use changes that generate mercury contamination can also bring wildlife 41 reservoir hosts into close contact with humans and domestic animals. However, the 42 interactions between contaminants, immunity, and infection are difficult to study in 43 natural systems, and empirical tests of possible directional relationships remain rare. 44 2. We capitalized on extreme mercury variation in a diverse Neotropical bat community in 45 Belize to test association between contaminants, immunity, and infection. By comparing 46 a previous dataset of bats sampled in 2014 with new data from 2017, we first confirmed 47 bat species with more aquatic prey in their diet had higher fur mercury. We then tested 48 covariation between mercury and cellular immunity and determined if such relationships 49 mediated associations between mercury and common bacterial pathogens (hemoplasmas 50 and Bartonella). Lastly, as bat ecology can dictate exposure to mercury and pathogens, 51 we also assessed species-specific patterns in these mercury-infection relationships. 52 3. Across the bat community, individuals with higher mercury had fewer neutrophils but not 53 lymphocytes, suggesting stronger associations with innate immunity. However, the odds 54 of infection for both pathogens were generally lowest in bats with high mercury, and 55 relationships between mercury and immunity did not mediate infection patterns. When 56 considering species-specific relationships between mercury and infection, mercury was 57 associated with especially low odds for Pteronotus mesoamericanus and Dermanura 58 phaeotis for hemoplasmas. Yet for Bartonella, mercury was associated with particularly 59 low odds in the genus Pteronotus but especially high odds within the Stenodermatinae.60 4. Synthesis and application: Lower infection risk in bats with high mercury despite weaker 61 innate defense suggests contaminant-driven loss of pathogen habitat (i.e., anemia) or 62 vector mortality as possible causal mechanisms. Strong positive associations between 63 mercury and Bartonella in the Stenodermatinae, however, alongside negative 64 associations between mercury and neutrophils in this clade, suggest these bats could be 65 especially vulnerable to immunosuppression. Greater attention to these potential causal 66 pathways could help disentangle the complex relationships between environmental 67 contaminants, immunity, and infection in natural systems and forecast disease risks. 68 69Wildlife are commonly exposed to a range of contaminants that are ubiquitous in the 70 environment, including heavy metals, organic compounds, and pesticides (Smith et al., 2007).

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“…buildings) act to break up host–parasite interactions. Similarly, T. gondii genotype diversity was found to decrease in areas of human settlement (Jiang et al 2018 ), and lead intoxication was found to reduce helminth species richness in mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ; Prüter et al 2018 ). It has also been proposed that the ratio between species richness of heteroxenous versus monoxenous parasites (i.e.…”

Section: Host–parasite Transmission Dynamics At the Community And Ecomentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a more healthy conservation paradigm: integrating disease and molecular ecology to aid biological conservation†

Gupta

Robin

Dharmarajan

2020

J Genet

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Parasites, and the diseases they cause, are important from an ecological and evolutionary perspective because they can negatively affect host fitness and can regulate host populations. Consequently, conservation biology has long recognized the vital role that parasites can play in the process of species endangerment and recovery. However, we are only beginning to understand how deeply parasites are embedded in ecological systems, and there is a growing recognition of the important ways in which parasites affect ecosystem structure and function. Thus, there is an urgent need to revisit how parasites are viewed from a conservation perspective and broaden the role that disease ecology plays in conservation-related research and outcomes. This review broadly focusses on the role that disease ecology can play in biological conservation. Our review specifically emphasizes on how the integration of tools and analytical approaches associated with both disease and molecular ecology can be leveraged to aid conservation biology. Our review first concentrates on diseasemediated extinctions and wildlife epidemics. We then focus on elucidating how host-parasite interactions has improved our understanding of the eco-evolutionary dynamics affecting hosts at the individual, population, community and ecosystem scales. We believe that the role of parasites as drivers and indicators of ecosystem health is especially an exciting area of research that has the potential to fundamentally alter our view of parasites and their role in biological conservation. The review concludes with a broad overview of the current and potential applications of modern genomic tools in disease ecology to aid biological conservation.

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Chronic lead intoxication decreases intestinal helminth species richness and infection intensity in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Cited by 21 publications

References 47 publications

Helminths of the mallardAnas platyrhynchosLinnaeus, 1758 from Austria, with emphasis on the morphological variability ofPolymorphus minutusGoeze, 1782

Helminths of the mallardAnas platyrhynchosLinnaeus, 1758 from Austria, with emphasis on the morphological variability ofPolymorphus minutusGoeze, 1782

Disentangling interactions among mercury, immunity, and infection in a Neotropical bat community

Towards a more healthy conservation paradigm: integrating disease and molecular ecology to aid biological conservation†

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