The role of host sex in parasite dynamics:: field experiments on the yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis
The role of host sex in parasite dynamics:: field experiments on the yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis
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DOI：
10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00552.x
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发表时间：
2004-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
8.8
通讯作者：
Hudson, PJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ferrari, N;Cattadori, IM;Hudson, PJ
我们调查了宿主性别在寄生虫传播中的作用，并提出疑问：“宿主性别在影响自由生活的动物种群感染动态方面重要吗？”“我们在实验中使用驱虫剂减少了黄颈鼠（Apodemus flavicollis）种群中雄性或雌性的蠕虫群落，在重复的诱捕区域，随后监测了未经处理的性别中大型寄生虫的流行率和强度。我们专注于占主导地位的寄生虫Heligmosomoides polygyrus，并发现减少寄生虫在男性引起了一致的减少寄生虫强度的女性，估计通过粪便卵计数，但在女性中的寄生虫的去除没有显着的影响，在男性中的寄生虫。这一发现表明，男性负责驱动寄生虫感染的主机人口和女性可能发挥相对微不足道的作用。促进这种模式的可能机制进行了讨论。
We investigated the role of host sex in parasite transmission and questioned: 'Is host sex important in influencing the dynamics of infection in free living animal populations?' We experimentally reduced the helminth community of either males or females in a yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) population using an anthelmintic, in replicated trapping areas, and subsequently monitored the prevalence and intensity of macroparasites in the untreated sex. We focussed on the dominant parasite Heligmosomoides polygyrus and found that reducing parasites in males caused a consistent reduction of parasitic intensity in females, estimated through faecal egg counts, but the removal of parasites in females had no significant influence on the parasites in males. This finding suggests that males are responsible for driving the parasite infection in the host population and females may play a relatively trivial role. The possible mechanisms promoting such patterns are discussed.