Parasites, emerging disease and wildlife conservation

Thompson, R.C.A.; Lymbery, Alan J.; Smith, Andrew D. M.

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2010.04.009

Cited by 196 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…Stress has also been suggested as a factor influencing a wide range of diseases in wildlife, including Chlamydia infection in koalas (Brearley et al 2013), toxoplasmosis in various marsupials (Thompson et al 2010), chytridimycosis in amphibians (Blaustein et al 2012;Kindermann et al 2012;Gabor et al 2013), avian influenza in migratory birds (Weber and Stilianakis 2007) and white nose syndrome (Cryan et al 2010) and zoonotic (spread from animals to humans) viruses in bats, including Ebola and Hendra virus (HeV) (Groseth et al 2007;Plowright et al 2014). However, associations between stress and disease in wildlife are not commonly empirically tested.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between physiological stress and wildlife disease: consequences for health and conservation

et al. 2016

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Wildlife populations are under increasing pressure from a variety of threatening processes, ranging from climate change to habitat loss, that can incite a physiological stress response. The stress response influences immune function, with potential consequences for patterns of infection and transmission of disease among and within wildlife, domesticated animals and humans. This is concerning because stress may exacerbate the impact of disease on species vulnerable to extinction, with consequences for biodiversity conservation globally. Furthermore, stress may shape the role of wildlife in the spread of emerging infectious diseases (EID) such as Hendra virus (HeV) and Ebola virus. However, we still have a limited understanding of the influence of physiological stress on infectious disease in wildlife.We highlight key reasons why an improved understanding of the relationship between stress and wildlife disease could benefit conservation, and animal and public health, and discuss approaches for future investigation. In particular, we recommend that increased attention be given to the influence of anthropogenic stressors including climate change, habitat loss and management interventions on disease dynamics in wildlife populations.Additional keyword: physiology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between physiological stress and wildlife disease: consequences for health and conservation

et al. 2016

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“…Monitoring the health and abundance of wildlife is a primary focus of conservation, and parasitic diseases are increasingly being recognized as a major conservation concern [1][2][3]. However, while parasites that cause direct host mortality receive considerable research attention, the majority are non-lethal under ordinary circumstances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sickness behaviour associated with non-lethal infections in wild primates

et al. 2015

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Non-lethal parasite infections are common in wildlife, but there is little information on their clinical consequences. Here, we pair infection data from a ubiquitous soil-transmitted helminth, the whipworm (genus Trichuris), with activity data from a habituated group of wild red colobus monkeys (Procolobus rufomitratus tephrosceles) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We use mixed-effect models to examine the relationship between non-lethal parasitism and red colobus behaviour. Our results indicate that red colobus increased resting and decreased more energetically costly behaviours when shedding whipworm eggs in faeces. Temporal patterns of behaviour also changed, with individuals switching behaviour less frequently when whipworm-positive. Feeding frequency did not differ, but red colobus consumption of bark and two plant species from the genus Albizia, which are used locally in traditional medicines, significantly increased when animals were shedding whipworm eggs. These results suggest self-medicative plant use, although additional work is needed to verify this conclusion. Our results indicate sickness behaviours, which are considered an adaptive response by hosts during infection. Induction of sickness behaviour in turn suggests that these primates are clinically sensitive to non-lethal parasite infections.

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“…Because of the negative effect of parasites on host fitness, the study of these interactions is of central importance in biomedical [1,2], agricultural [3,4] and species conservation research [5,6]. The exact dynamics of the two coevolving populations are usually evaluated with the help of mathematical models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host-parasite coevolution in populations of constant and variable size

Song

Gokhale

Papkou

et al. 2014

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Background:The matching-allele and gene-for-gene models are widely used in mathematical approaches that study the dynamics of host-parasite interactions. Agrawal and Lively (Evolutionary Ecology Research 4:79-90, 2002) captured these two models in a single framework and numerically explored the associated time discrete dynamics of allele frequencies. Results:Here, we present a detailed analytical investigation of this unifying framework in continuous time and provide a generalization. We extend the model to take into account changing population sizes, which result from the antagonistic nature of the interaction and follow the Lotka-Volterra equations. Under this extension, the population dynamics become most complex as the model moves away from pure matching-allele and becomes more gene-for-gene-like. While the population densities oscillate with a single oscillation frequency in the pure matching-allele model, a second oscillation frequency arises under gene-for-gene-like conditions. These observations hold for general interaction parameters and allow to infer generic patterns of the dynamics. Conclusion: Our results suggest that experimentally inferred dynamical patterns of host-parasite coevolution should typically be much more complex than the popular illustrations of Red Queen dynamics. A single parasite that infects more than one host can substantially alter the cyclic dynamics.

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Parasites, emerging disease and wildlife conservation

Cited by 196 publications

References 106 publications

The relationship between physiological stress and wildlife disease: consequences for health and conservation

The relationship between physiological stress and wildlife disease: consequences for health and conservation

Sickness behaviour associated with non-lethal infections in wild primates

Host-parasite coevolution in populations of constant and variable size

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