What do we know about parasites of wildlife in high biodiversity areas with anthropogenic disturbance? The special case of Mexico

Abstract

The continual rise of anthropogenic disturbance of ecosystems has been associated with an increasing incidence of emerging diseases. The largest amount of data on emerging diseases relates to bacterial and viral pathogens, but there is a lack of parasite data, especially from wildlife. Monitoring wildlife parasitic diseases should be considered a priority, especially in high biodiversity regions with strong anthropogenic impacts, like Mexico, where the wildlife/livestock/human interface is associated with increased risk of disease transmission. Mexico belongs to the top-ten megadiverse countries and is located between two biogeographic regions. This situation makes Mexico a favourable region for the spillover of animal pathogens to human beings, causing pandemics, such as the one recently caused by influenza virus A (H1N1). The current state of knowledge of Mexican wildlife parasites is scarce and focuses mainly in Neotropical fauna. Moreover, this knowledge is heterogeneous for different parasite groups, especially concerning their pathologic effects and epidemiology. The goals of this review are to compile information on Mexican wildlife parasites and to identify knowledge gaps in order to stimulate research on pending epidemiological, public health, ecological and pathological areas, and to encourage the creation of more specialized groups from the perspective of the One-Health concept.

Metazoan and protozoan pathology of wild opossums (Didelphis virginiana) in Mexico

“…In this study, the animals presented parasites and co-infections. It is difficult to know about the pathogenic effect of each of them on D. virginiana; therefore, it is necessary and essential to understand that these animals play a relevant ecological role in nature, but they are also reservoirs of important parasitic zoonoses in the urban and suburban ecosystems of Mexico such as P. mexicanus, Gnathostoma and Trichuris (Sanyaolu et al 2016, Muñoz-García et al 2018, Bezerra-Santos et al 2020.…”

Tick‐tock… says the moon and the sun: Daily activity patterns of mid‐large‐sized mammals in grassland‐dominated landscapes afforested withEucalyptus

“…Generally, in human‐modified areas, diurnal activity has been identified as a barrier to movement between favourable patches (Daily & Ehrlich, 1996; Donati & Borgognini‐Tarli, 2006; Wong & Candolin, 2015). By contrast, cathemeral activity increases with habitat fragmentation (Bennie et al, 2014; Norris et al, 2010) as well as nocturnality, as it reduces threats (Bennie et al, 2014; Gaynor et al, 2019; Muñoz‐García et al, 2018), as seen in oil palm plantations (Pardo et al, 2021) and in abandoned plantations (Rodríguez‐Gómez & Fontúrbel, 2020). Although we did not find differences among landscapes along the afforestation gradient studied, most species (12 from 13) exhibited cathemeral or nocturnal activity.…”

Assessing the SARS-CoV-2 threat to wildlife: Potential risk to a broad range of mammals

“…However, in wild animals the disease pathophysiology and predisposing factors are unknown. As with other infectious diseases in wildlife, the pathogenic effects are driven by stressful contexts, mainly anthropogenic, as loss of habitat, climate change, loss of resources, which increase competition and pollution ( Muñoz-García et al, 2018 ). Therefore, this stressful context in wild animals may play a similar role that comorbidity does in humans, thereby increasing the susceptibility of wild populations and, consequently, the loss of endangered species.…”