Veitch Jasmine S M, Bowman Jeff, Ketchen J Dawson, Schulte-Hostedde Albrecht I
Department of Biology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Parasitology. 2024 Dec;151(14):1597-1603. doi: 10.1017/S0031182024001513.
Parasite species interactions, host biology traits, and external environmental factors can drive co-occurrence patterns between parasite species. We investigated co-occurrence patterns between three ectoparasite species (mite (), and fleas ( and )) of North American red squirrels (). We evaluated (1) whether ectoparasites of red squirrels exhibit non-random co-occurrence patterns, and (2) the contribution of host and external environmental factors to parasite co-occurrence. Bayesian ordination and regression analysis (boral) revealed random associations between parasite species pairs when accounting for host and external environmental factors. However, the mite exhibited a negative association with the flea and positive association with the flea linked to temporal patterns of occurrence. Our data suggests that parasites of the investigated population of red squirrels tend to form associations based on temporal trends in infestation rather than species interactions. Further experimentation should investigate the role of additional factors on parasite co-occurrence patterns, such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity.
寄生虫物种间的相互作用、宿主生物学特征以及外部环境因素可驱动寄生虫物种间的共存模式。我们调查了北美红松鼠的三种体外寄生虫（螨（ ）以及跳蚤（ 和 ））之间的共存模式。我们评估了：（1）红松鼠的体外寄生虫是否呈现非随机的共存模式；（2）宿主和外部环境因素对寄生虫共存的影响。贝叶斯排序和回归分析（boral）显示，在考虑宿主和外部环境因素时，寄生虫物种对之间存在随机关联。然而，螨与跳蚤 呈现负相关，与跳蚤 呈现正相关，这与出现的时间模式有关。我们的数据表明，所研究的红松鼠种群的寄生虫倾向于基于感染的时间趋势而非物种间相互作用形成关联。进一步的实验应研究其他因素（如温度、降水和湿度）对寄生虫共存模式的作用。
