Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS), Universidad Nacional de Misiones (UNaM), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Puerto Iguazú (Misiones), Argentina.
Asociación Civil Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico (CeIBA), Puerto Iguazú, Argentina.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 6;7(1):12778. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12803-8.
Nutritional stress may predispose individuals to infection, which in turn can have further detrimental effects on physical condition, thus creating an opportunity for reciprocal effects between nutrition and parasitism. Little experimental investigation has been conducted on this "vicious circle" hypothesis in wild animals, especially under natural conditions. We evaluated the reciprocal effects of nutritional status and parasitism using an experimental approach in two groups of wild black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus). Across two consecutive winters, we collected faecal samples from identified capuchins to determine presence and load of gastrointestinal helminthes, and measured individual body mass as a proxy of physical condition. Food availability was manipulated by provisioning monkeys with bananas, and parasite burdens by applying antiparasitic drugs to selected individuals. We found no effect of antiparasitic drugs on physical condition, but parasite loads decreased in response to high levels of food availability. Our results represent the first experimental evidence that the nutritional status may drive parasite dynamics in a primate.
营养压力可能使个体易感染，而感染反过来又会对身体状况产生进一步的不利影响，从而在营养和寄生虫之间创造出相互影响的机会。在野生动物中，特别是在自然条件下，对这种“恶性循环”假说进行的实验研究很少。我们使用两组野生黑帽卷尾猴（Sapajus nigritus）的实验方法来评估营养状况和寄生虫感染之间的相互影响。在两个连续的冬季，我们从已识别的卷尾猴身上采集粪便样本，以确定胃肠道寄生虫的存在和负荷，并测量个体体重作为身体状况的代表。通过给猴子提供香蕉来控制食物的可获得性，并通过给选定的个体使用驱虫药物来控制寄生虫的负担。我们没有发现驱虫药物对身体状况有影响，但寄生虫负荷随着食物可获得性的增加而降低。我们的研究结果首次提供了实验证据，表明营养状况可能会影响灵长类动物的寄生虫动态。
