Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 May 11;289(1974):20212702. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2702.
Amidst global shifts in the distribution and abundance of wildlife and livestock, we have only a rudimentary understanding of ungulate parasite communities and parasite-sharing patterns. We used qPCR and DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples to characterize gastrointestinal nematode (Strongylida) community composition and sharing among 17 sympatric species of wild and domestic large mammalian herbivore in central Kenya. We tested a suite of hypothesis-driven predictions about the role of host traits and phylogenetic relatedness in describing parasite infections. Host species identity explained 27-53% of individual variation in parasite prevalence, richness, community composition and phylogenetic diversity. Host and parasite phylogenies were congruent, host gut morphology predicted parasite community composition and prevalence, and hosts with low evolutionary distinctiveness were centrally positioned in the parasite-sharing network. We found no evidence that host body size, social-group size or feeding height were correlated with parasite composition. Our results highlight the interwoven evolutionary and ecological histories of large herbivores and their gastrointestinal nematodes and suggest that host identity, phylogeny and gut architecture-a phylogenetically conserved trait related to parasite habitat-are the overriding influences on parasite communities. These findings have implications for wildlife management and conservation as wild herbivores are increasingly replaced by livestock.
在全球野生动物和家畜分布和丰度发生变化的背景下，我们对有蹄类寄生虫群落和寄生虫共享模式只有初步的了解。我们使用 qPCR 和粪便样本的 DNA 宏条形码技术，对肯尼亚中部 17 种共生的野生和家养大型食草哺乳动物的胃肠道线虫（Strongylida）群落组成和寄生虫共享进行了特征描述。我们检验了一套关于宿主特征和系统发育关系在描述寄生虫感染方面的作用的假设驱动预测。宿主物种身份解释了寄生虫感染的个体变异的 27-53%，包括寄生虫的流行率、丰富度、群落组成和系统发育多样性。宿主和寄生虫的系统发育是一致的，宿主肠道形态预测了寄生虫群落组成和流行率，进化独特性低的宿主在寄生虫共享网络中处于中心位置。我们没有发现宿主体型、社会群体大小或采食高度与寄生虫组成相关的证据。我们的研究结果突出了大型食草动物及其胃肠道线虫的交织进化和生态历史，并表明宿主身份、系统发育和肠道结构（与寄生虫栖息地相关的系统发育保守特征）是寄生虫群落的主要影响因素。这些发现对野生动物管理和保护具有重要意义，因为野生动物越来越多地被家畜所取代。
