Parasitic infection alters rodent movement in a semiarid ecosystem

Abstract

Artículo de publicación ISIParasite-mediated behavioral changes in their hosts have been documented in many species, but field evidence is scarce. The protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi is transmitted by insect vectors to several mammal species. Although previous studies have shown high levels of infection in hosts and vectors, it is unknown if this protozoan affects movement behavior of mammal reservoirs. Here we examine, under natural conditions, the existence of movement alterations in two species of rodents (Octodon degus and Phyllotis darwini) when infected with T. cruzi, evaluated for four consecutive years. We found that infected O. degus traveled shorter distances than those non-infected, the opposite was found for P. darwini. We also detected a strong inter-annual effect for both species. Our results show that rodent species respond differentially to T. cruzi infection in regard to their movements, which may have implications in disease spreading.FONDECYT 11090086 1140521 CONICYT doctoral fellowship CONICYT-Becas Chile Doctoral Scholarshi

Temporal fluctuation in shrub species preferences of two native rodents: The effect of infection status on habitat use

“…Our results show that T. cruzi infection in wild small mammals is able to modify habitat use and preference patterns for certain shrub species. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the effects of infection status on the differential use of plant species, which may be related to the altered movement behaviour previously reported for these rodent species (Jiménez et al ). In summary, both rodents exhibited preferences for shrub species, which were affected by infection status and were variable in time.…”

“…T. cruzi is transmitted in the wild by the reduviid hemipteran vector Mepraia spinolai (Botto‐Mahan et al ), which infects many native and introduced mammal species (Botto‐Mahan et al , , ). A previous study reported behavioural changes in infected wild rodents, altering their movement behaviour because of alterations in their body condition (Jiménez et al ). To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the potential effect of T. cruzi infection on small mammal behaviour related to how they use the shrub species available in the environment.…”

Feeding profile of Mepraia spinolai , a sylvatic vector of Chagas disease in Chile

“…Thus, T. cruzi infected O. degus travels shorter distances than uninfected ones. In contrast, infected P. darwini increases their displacement area (Jimenez et al, 2015), thus amplifying the contact between this rodent and M. spinolai.…”

“…The dominance of P. darwini and O. degus as hosts of M. spinolai, either alone or in combination with other species, could be explained by an increase in their populations or by their higher proportion, compared to other mammals in endemic areas (Jimenez et al, 2015;Lent and Wygodzinsky, 1979;Oda et al, 2014). On the other hand, these mammals share habitats with triatomine insects in rocky environments and on slopes of northern exposure (Jimenez and Lorca, 1990).…”

Spatial distribution of an infectious disease in a small mammal community

“…To assess the relationship between those factors and the status of T. cruzi infection in mammals, we fitted generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with a binomial distribution, using infection condition as response variable (infected/not infected) and IDI values as explanatory variable, and the body condition index (BCI= mass/(total length -tail length) 2 ) as a covariate, included because it had a significant effect in a previous study (Jiménez et al 2015). We included the capture site and year as random factors to account for the spatial and temporal variability, which included the small mammals with known T. cruzi infection status.…”