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Smart carnivores think twice: Red fox delays scavenging on conspecific carcasses to reduce parasite risk.

ABSTRACT: The recent SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has highlighted the need to prevent emerging and re-emerging diseases, which means that we must approach the study of diseases from a One Health perspective. The study of pathogen transmission in wildlife is challenging, but it is unquestionably key to understand how epidemiological interactions occur at the wildlife-domestic-human interface. In this context, studying parasite avoidance behaviours may provide essential insights on parasite transmission, host-parasite coevolution, and energy flow through food-webs. However, the strategies of avoiding trophically transmitted parasites in mammalian carnivores have received little scientific attention. Here, we explore the behaviour of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and other mammalian carnivores at conspecific and heterospecific carnivore carcasses using videos recorded by camera traps. We aim to determine 1) the factors influencing the probability of foxes to practice cannibalism, and 2) whether the scavenging behaviour of foxes differ when facing conspecific vs. heterospecific carcasses. We found that red foxes were generally reluctant to consume mesocarnivore carrion, especially of conspecifics. When recorded, consumption by foxes was delayed several days (heterospecific carcasses) or weeks (conspecific carcasses) after carcass detection. Other mammalian scavengers showed a similar pattern. Also, meat-borne parasite transmission from wild carnivore carcasses to domestic dogs and cats was highly unlikely. Our findings challenge the widespread assumption that cannibalistic or intra-specific scavenging is a major transmission route for Trichinella spp. and other meat-borne parasites, especially for the red fox. Overall, our results suggest that the feeding decisions of scavengers are probably shaped by two main contrasting forces, namely the nutritional reward provided by carrion of phylogenetically similar species and the risk of acquiring meat-borne parasites shared with these species. This study illustrates how the detailed monitoring of carnivore behaviour is essential to assess the epidemiological role of these hosts in the maintenance and dispersion of parasites of public and animal health relevance.

SUBMITTER: Gonzalvez M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8464160 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The identification of populations and spatial genetic patterns is important for ecological and conservation research, and spatially explicit individual-based methods have been recognised as powerful tools in this context. Mammalian carnivores are intrinsically vulnerable to habitat fragmentation but not much is known about the genetic consequences of fragmentation in common species. Stone martens (Martes foina) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) share a widespread Palearctic distribution and are considered habitat generalists, but in the Iberian Peninsula stone martens tend to occur in higher quality habitats. We compared their genetic structure in Portugal to see if they are consistent with their differences in ecological plasticity, and also to illustrate an approach to explicitly delineate the spatial boundaries of consistently identified genetic units. We analysed microsatellite data using spatial Bayesian clustering methods (implemented in the software BAPS, GENELAND and TESS), a progressive partitioning approach and a multivariate technique (Spatial Principal Components Analysis-sPCA). Three consensus Bayesian clusters were identified for the stone marten. No consensus was achieved for the red fox, but one cluster was the most probable clustering solution. Progressive partitioning and sPCA suggested additional clusters in the stone marten but they were not consistent among methods and were geographically incoherent. The contrasting results between the two species are consistent with the literature reporting stricter ecological requirements of the stone marten in the Iberian Peninsula. The observed genetic structure in the stone marten may have been influenced by landscape features, particularly rivers, and fragmentation. We suggest that an approach based on a consensus clustering solution of multiple different algorithms may provide an objective and effective means to delineate potential boundaries of inferred subpopulations. sPCA and progressive partitioning offer further verification of possible population structure and may be useful for revealing cryptic spatial genetic patterns worth further investigation.

Project description:The genus Sirolpidium (Sirolpidiaceae) of the Oomycota includes several species of holocarpic obligate aquatic parasites. These organisms are widely occurring in marine and freshwater habitats, mostly infecting filamentous green algae. Presently, all species are only known from their morphology and descriptive life cycle traits. None of the seven species classified in Sirolpidium, including the type species, S. bryopsidis, has been rediscovered and studied for their molecular phylogeny, so far. Originally, the genus was established to accommodate all parasites of filamentous marine green algae. In the past few decades, however, Sirolpidium has undergone multiple taxonomic revisions and several species parasitic in other host groups were added to the genus. While the phylogeny of the marine rhodophyte- and phaeophyte-infecting genera Pontisma and Eurychasma, respectively, has only been resolved recently, the taxonomic placement of the chlorophyte-infecting genus Sirolpidium remained unresolved. In the present study, we report the phylogenetic placement of Sirolpidium bryopsidis infecting the filamentous marine green algae Capsosiphon fulvescens sampled from Skagaströnd in Northwest Iceland. Phylogenetic reconstructions revealed that S. bryopsidis is either conspecific or at least very closely related to the type species of Pontisma, Po. lagenidioides. Consequently, the type species of genus Sirolpidium, S. bryopsidis, is reclassified to Pontisma. Further infection trials are needed to determine if Po. bryopsidis and Po. lagenidioides are conspecific or closely related. In either case, the apparently recent host jump from red to green algae is remarkable, as it opens the possibility for radiation in a largely divergent eukaryotic lineage. Citation: Buaya AT, Scholz B, Thines M (2021). Sirolpidium bryopsidis, a parasite of green algae, is probably conspecific with Pontisma lagenidioides, a parasite of red algae. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 7: 223-231. doi: 10.3114/fuse.2021.07.11.

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Smart carnivores think twice: Red fox delays scavenging on conspecific carcasses to reduce parasite risk.

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