Mammalian gastrointestinal parasites in rainforest remnants of Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is postulated to be a major factor influencing infectious disease dynamics in wildlife populations and may also be responsible, at least in part, for the recent spurt in the emergence, or re-emergence, of infectious diseases in humans. The mechanism behind these relationships are poorly understood due to the lack of insights into the interacting local factors and insufficient baseline data in ecological parasitology of wildlife. Here, we studied the gastrointestinal parasites of nonhuman mammalian hosts living in 10 rainforest patches of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, India. We examined 349 faecal samples of 17 mammalian species and successfully identified 24 gastrointestinal parasite taxa including 1 protozoan, 2 trematode, 3 cestode and 18 nematode taxa. Twenty of these parasites are known parasites of humans. We also found that as much as 73% of all infected samples were infected by multiple parasites. In addition, the smallest and most fragmented forest patches recorded the highest parasite richness; the pattern across fragments, however, seemed to be less straightforward, suggesting potential interplay of local factors.

Land Use Change Increases Wildlife Parasite Diversity in Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India

“…Assuming each forest fragment as an island, their isolation was summarized with an isolation index which was calculated as the sum of the square root of the distances to the nearest equivalent (no smaller than 80% of size) or larger fragment (Dahl, 2004). Data on fragment size, distance between fragments and presence of human settlements, plantations and livestock were collected from earlier studies from Anamalai hills 45,60 .…”

“…This could be especially true for parasites who require multiple host species to complete its life cycle, such as those that are transmitted trophically 44 . So far, many studies looked into this effect but the results have been mixed 6,41,45–47 .…”

“…It is possible that many of the wildlife are important reservoirs of multiple environmentally-transmitted parasites. In fact, recent studies have recorded important parasite groups within certain host species populations that may cause Ascariasis, Trichuriasis and Strongylodiasis in humans 45,46,57,58 .…”

Metabarcoding Gastrointestinal Nematodes in Sympatric Endemic and Nonendemic Species in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar

“…Nevertheless, parasite sharing appears to be common in wild mammals (Chakraborty et al 2015; Dallas and Presley 2014;Kouassi et al 2015). Parasite communities can also be affected by the introduction of non-endemic host species that provide new competent hosts for endemic parasites (Dunn et al 2012;Kelly et al 2009) or they can bring new parasite species to the ecosystem (Hudson and Greenman 1998;Taraschewski 2006).…”