High Toxocara cati prevalence in wild, free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Finland, 1999–2015

A walk on the wild side: A review of the epidemiology of Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati in wild hosts

“…The history of the Eurasian lynx population in Finland has provided an opportunity to study the potential effects of a dramatic population increase and expansion of a solitary apex predator on their parasite prevalence and abundance. The extensive study of Finnish lynx by Virta et al (2022) that was conducted between 1999 and 2015, reported worm burdens that ranged from 1 to 218 worms/host with a k value of 0.513 indicating significant aggregation. This study concluded that despite considerable increases in the lynx population over the period of the study, T .…”

On Spatiotemporal Overdispersion and Macroparasite Accumulation in Hosts Leading to Aggregation: A Quantitative Framework

“…Environmental heterogeneity and the dynamic behavior of parasite transmission can lead to overdispersion, and overdispersion is physically characterized in parasite aggregation or in superspreading events during epidemics [ 6 ]. In host-parasite systems, parasite aggregation is usually considered an ecological ‘law’ because it is very common in nature, especially if we consider macroparasites such as worms and ticks [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. This aggregation or clustering of parasites in few hosts has an impact on statistical sampling (which means that the normal distribution cannot be used), in estimating disease burden in the population, and in designing mass or targeted interventions.…”