Diet quality and immunocompetence influence parasite load of roe deer in a fragmented landscape

Navarro-González, Nora; Verheyden, Hélène; Hoste, Hervé; Cargnelutti, Bruno; Lourtet, Bruno; Merlet, Joël; Daufresne, Tanguy; Lavı́n, Santiago; Hewison, A. J. Mark; Morand, Sergé; Serrano, Emmanuel

doi:10.1007/s10344-010-0474-x

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(46 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The rate of encounters can vary with the level of host foraging activities [ 23 , 24 ], the characteristics of the host habitat [ 25 – 27 ], the spatial and temporal co-distributions of hosts and vectors [ 28 – 31 ]. Similarly, the rate of parasite success in the host can depend on the individual level of immunity [ 32 – 34 ] or physiological status [ 35 – 38 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental Factors Determining the Nature of Parasite Aggregation in Hosts

2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The distribution of parasites in hosts is typically aggregated: a few hosts harbour many parasites, while the remainder of hosts are virtually parasite free. The origin of this almost universal pattern is central to our understanding of host-parasite interactions; it affects many facets of their ecology and evolution. Despite this, the standard statistical framework used to characterize parasite aggregation does not describe the processes generating such a pattern. In this work, we have developed a mathematical framework for the distribution of parasites in hosts, starting from a simple statistical description in terms of two fundamental processes: the exposure of hosts to parasites and the infection success of parasites. This description allows the level of aggregation of parasites in hosts to be related to the random variation in these two processes and to true host heterogeneity. We show that random variation can generate an aggregated distribution and that the common view, that encounters and success are two equivalent filters, applies to the average parasite burden under neutral assumptions but it does not apply to the variance of the parasite burden, and it is not true when heterogeneity between hosts is incorporated in the model. We find that aggregation decreases linearly with the number of encounters, but it depends non-linearly on parasite success. We also find additional terms in the variance of the parasite burden which contribute to the actual level of aggregation in specific biological systems. We have derived the formal expressions of these contributions, and these provide new opportunities to analyse empirical data and tackle the complexity of the origin of aggregation in various host-parasite associations.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental Factors Determining the Nature of Parasite Aggregation in Hosts

2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For deer inhabiting predominantly agricultural habitats, this could lead to a reduction in metabolic costs associated with digestion, and consequently a reduction in daily energy expenditure allocated for rumination. The better body condition (Hewison et al 2009) and immunocompetence (Navarro-Gonzalez et al 2011) of roe deer living in the more open landscapes of our study area could therefore be partly explained by this energetic advantage. Whether the landscape-related differences in digestive tissue mass observed in this study could suffice to result in significant metabolic savings needs to be explored in future studies by measuring and modeling energy expenditure and intake.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Digestive plasticity as a response to woodland fragmentation in roe deer

Serrano

Verheyden

Hummel

et al. 2011

Ecological Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Digestive plasticity, which refers to changes in digestive features due to changes in both internal and external environmental conditions, is a crucial factor for understanding the ability of species to cope with environmental changes. In Europe, agricultural intensification and the loss of forests have been major challenges for original forest dwellers, however some species, such as the European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), have been able to successfully colonize these new habitats. In this work, we investigated the adaptation of some digestive features of roe deer to the agricultural landscapes. We assessed whether changes in local landscape structure influenced the mass of both reticulorumen (RR) and distal fermentation chamber (DFC) of 47 juvenile and adult roe deer inhabiting an agro-ecosystem in southwest France. Woodland cover had a clear effect on diet quality (estimated by the rate of gas production of digestive contents) and DFC weight of animals. In fact, deer from the most forested landscapes showed heavier DFCs and fed on poorer quality diet (lower gas production) than their counterparts from the most open landscapes. RR mass was less influenced by the landscape openness, being the age of animals the main factor for understanding the variations of this digestive feature in our study area. We can conclude that colonizing agricultural landscapes increases the access to highly energetic and digestive resources.

show abstract

“…This was explained as an investment in the production and stockage of lymphocytes in the spleen in order to counteract potential infections (Møller et al, 1998). However, other studies have suggested that spleen mass reflects the host condition and therefore should be negatively related to parasite infection (Corbin et al, 2008;Lutermann and Bennett, 2008;Navarro-Gonzalez et al, 2011). However, these hypotheses are not mutually exclusive.…”

Section: Impacts Of Parasites and Parasite Risk On Spleen Size And Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasite diversity of disease-bearing rodents of Southeast Asia: habitat determinants and effects on sexual size dimorphism and life-traits

Morand

Bordes

2015

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigated a causal chain of relationships between habitat specialization and parasite species richness in rodent communities in Southeast Asia, and the consequences for variation in immune investment (using spleen size), the degree of sexual competition (using testes) and sexual size dimorphism (SSD). We used data gathered on rodents, their habitat specialization and their parasites (macro-and micro-parasites) in Southeast Asian landscapes. The results supported the hypotheses that parasite diversity drives the evolution of host life-traits and sexual selection. Firstly, host habitat specialization explained the variation in parasite species richness. Secondly, high parasite species richness was linked to host immune investment, using the relative spleen size of rodents. Thirdly, according to the potential costs associated with immune investment, the relative spleen size was found to be negatively correlated with the relative size of testes among rodents. Fourthly, a positive relationship between male-biased SSD and parasite species richness was observed supporting the role of parasitism in sexual selection. Finally, the variation in SSD was positively associated with the degree of habitat specialization. Highest values of female-biased SSD were associated with habitat specialization, whereas highest values of male-biased SSD concerned synanthropic or generalist rodent species. These results, also correlative, will help to facilitate selection of the species that should be thoroughly investigated at the population level to better understand the selective effects of parasites on rodent life-history and behavior.

show abstract

Diet quality and immunocompetence influence parasite load of roe deer in a fragmented landscape

Cited by 20 publications

References 39 publications

Fundamental Factors Determining the Nature of Parasite Aggregation in Hosts

Fundamental Factors Determining the Nature of Parasite Aggregation in Hosts

Digestive plasticity as a response to woodland fragmentation in roe deer

Parasite diversity of disease-bearing rodents of Southeast Asia: habitat determinants and effects on sexual size dimorphism and life-traits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About