Abstract
In nature, parasitic infections must be addressed as complex systems involving parasite-host relationships on a temporal and spatial scale. Since the parasites cover a great biological diversity, we can expect that wildlife are exposed simultaneously to different parasites. In this sense, the objective of this work was to determine the relationships between free-living mammals and their associated hemoparasites in the Brazilian Pantanal. We used the data published during 2017 and 2018 by de Sousa et al. regarding the detection of vector-borne pathogens (VBP), namely Anaplasma, Babesia, Bartonella, Cytauxzoon, Ehrlichia, Hepatozoon, Mycoplasma, and Theileria, in nine species of free-living mammals belonging to orders Carnivora, Rodentia, and Didelphimorphia. We assume as infected an individual positive on any of parasitological, molecular, and/or serological tests. We observed a strong association between the wild felid Leopardus pardalis with Cytauxzoon, the wild canid Cerdocyon thous with Hepatozoon, the small rodent Thrichomys fosteri with Bartonella, and the procyonid Nasua nasua with Mycoplasma and Theileria. Therefore, N. nasua, C. thous, T. fosteri, and the small rodent Oecomys mamorae can be considered key species for the maintenance of selected VBP in the Pantanal region, because they showed a high number of single and coinfections. Together, our results highlighted the importance of coinfection as a common phenomenon in nature.
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The first author received fellowship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) (88887.369261/2019-00). HMH and MRA are fellowship researchers from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (308768/2017-5 and 302420/2017-7). NYSM, WAGN, and SCL are in receipt of a fellowship from CAPES (88887.194498/2018-00, 88887.149231/2017-00, 71/700.169/2020, respectively). This research was financially supported by CAPES (Finance Code 001).
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Conceptualization: FMS, KCMS, RZM, MRA, and HMH; data curation: FMS and NYS; formal analysis: FMS and NYS; funding acquisition: RZM, MRA, and HMH; investigation: FMS, KCMS, NYS, RZM, MRA, and HMH; methodology: FMS, KCMS, and NYS; project administration: FMS; supervision: FMS; validation: FMS, KCMS, NYS, MRA, and HMH; visualization: FMS, NYS, MRA, and HMH; writing—original draft: FMS; writing—review and editing: FMS, KCMS, NYS, WAGN, SCL, RZM, MRA, and HMH
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All field and laboratory procedures were performed in accordance with licenses granted by the Biodiversity Information and Authorization System of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (SISBIO) (56912-2). This study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Use of the Dom Bosco Catholic University, Campo Grande, MS (license number 001/2017).
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Santos, F.M., de Sousa, K.C.M., Sano, N.Y. et al. Relationships between vector-borne parasites and free-living mammals at the Brazilian Pantanal. Parasitol Res 120, 1003–1010 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-07028-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-07028-0