Pearsonema plica in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from semi-arid areas of the Iberian Peninsula

Arcenillas-Hernández, Irene; Ybáñez, R. Ruiz de; Tizzani, Paolo; Pérez‐Cutillas, Pedro; Pleite, Carlos Martínez-Carrasco

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.08.005

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…rainfall or temperature, affecting parasite survival and transmission. Such processes are well described generally (Shearer and Ezenwa 2020) and for parasites of the fox specifically (Arcenillas-Hernández et al 2022). We expect such effects to specifically act on species with transmission stages accumulating in the outside environment.…”

Section: Urbanisation and Other Environmental Effectsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Foxes are not hibernating; in winter and spring, when males are searching for mating partners and females are raising their young, resources are limited and conditions for the animals are harsher than in summer and autumn (Iossa et al 2008;Halvorsrud 2014). As a result, helminths that parasitize on foxes are directly impacted by seasonality and climate, which can affect survival of their external lifecycle stages or invertebrate intermediate hosts (Shearer and Ezenwa 2020;Arcenillas-Hernández et al 2022), or indirectly via their hosts. Poor host body condition can lead to susceptibility to infections and in turn diminish body condition (Beldomenico and Begon 2010;Beldomenico et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Host condition, seasonality and environmental factors explain parasite community differences between urban and rural foxes

Scholz

Jarquín‐Díaz

Planillo

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Wildlife parasite communities are important for an OneHealth approach. The external environment impacts host-associated communities directly and via the hosts. Hosts in poor body condition are more susceptible to infection and parasite mode of transmission will affect occurrence: rural environments with better availability of intermediate hosts favour trophic transmission, while urban environments, often with dense host populations, favour direct transmission. We here study helminth communities within their synanthropic red fox (Vulpes vulpes) hosts (155 intestinal samples) using DNA metabarcoding of multiple marker genes (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, COI). Controlling for sampling bias by incorporating DNA quantity and quality into models, we analysed the effect of environmental (urbanisation, seasonality) and host-intrinsic (weight, age, sex) variables on helminth communities. Helminth diversity was increased in younger hosts, in foxes with lower body weight and in those found in winter and spring. Host intrinsic drivers had smaller effects on the composition of the community, which was impacted by urbanisation, dependent on parasite transmission mode: surprisingly, transmission in two-host lifecycles was more pronounced in urban Berlin than in rural Brandenburg. Our results disagree with the prevailing hypothesis that trophically transmitted helminths are less prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas. Environmental drivers, i.e. urbanisation, affected each helminth species in the community differently, and we cannot generalise from helminth traits to their occurrences in urbanised areas. Finding co-infestations with multiple helminths and high infection intensity associated with poor body condition, however, might be relevant for a OneHealth approach.

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Section: Urbanisation and Other Environmental Effectsmentioning

confidence: 95%