Biology subjects

Kenyon, F.

Publications and source records attributed to Kenyon, F..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

The fine-scale landscape of immunity and parasitism in a wild ungulate population

Spatial heterogeneity in parasite susceptibility and exposure is a common source of confounding variation in disease ecology studies. However, it is not known whether spatial autocorrelation acts on immunity in particular at small scales, within wild animal populations, and whether this predicts spatial patterns in infection. Here we used a well-mixed wild population of individually recognised red deer (Cervus elaphus) inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape to investigate fine-scale spatial patterns of immunity and parasitism. We noninvasively collected 842 faecal samples from 141 females with known ranging behaviour over two years. We quantified total and helminth-specific mucosal antibodies and counted propagules of three gastrointestinal helminth taxa. These data were analysed with linear mixed models using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA), using a Stochastic Partial Differentiation Equation approach (SPDE) to control for and quantify spatial autocorrelation. We also investigated whether spatial patterns of immunity and parasitism changed seasonally. We discovered substantial spatial heterogeneity in general and helminth-specific antibody levels and parasitism with two helminth taxa, all of which exhibited contrasting seasonal variation in their spatial patterns. Notably, strongyle nematode intensity did not align with density hotspots, while Fasciola hepatica intensity appeared to be strongly influenced by the presence of wet grazing. In addition, antibody hotspots did not correlate with distributions of any parasites. Our results suggest spatial heterogeneity may be an important factor affecting immunity and parasitism in a wide range of study systems. We discuss these findings with regards to the design of sampling regimes and public health interventions, and suggest that disease ecology studies investigate spatial heterogeneity more regularly to enhance their results, even when examining small geographic areas.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Reproduction has different costs for immunity and parasitism in a wild mammal

1. Life history theory predicts that reproductive investment draws resources away from immunity, resulting in increased parasitism. However, studies of reproductive tradeoffs rarely examine multiple measures of reproduction, immunity, and parasitism. It is therefore unclear whether the immune costs of reproductive traits correlate with their resource costs, and whether increased parasitism emerges from weaker immunity.\n\n2. We examined these relationships in wild female red deer (Cervus elaphus) with variable reproductive investment and longitudinal data on mucosal antibody levels and helminth parasitism. We noninvasively collected faecal samples, counting propagules of strongyle nematodes (order: Strongylida), the common liver fluke Fasciola hepatica and the red deer tissue nematode Elaphostrongylus cervi. We also quantified both total and anti-strongyle mucosal IgA to measure general and specific immune investment.\n\n3. Contrary to our predictions, we found that gestation was associated with decreased total IgA but with no increase in parasitism. Meanwhile, the considerable resource demand of lactation had no further immune cost but was associated with higher counts of strongyle nematodes and Elaphostrongylus cervi. These contrasting costs arose despite a negative correlation between antibodies and strongyle count, which implied that IgA was indicative of protective immunity.\n\n4. Our findings suggest that processes other than classical resource allocation tradeoffs are involved in mediating observed relationships between reproduction, immunity, and parasitism in wild mammals. In particular, reproduction-immunity tradeoffs may result from hormonal regulation or maternal antibody transfer, with parasitism increasing as a result of increased exposure arising from resource acquisition constraints. We advocate careful consideration of resource-independent mechanistic links and measurement of both immunity and parasitism when investigating reproductive costs.

ecology↗