The role of species ecology in predicting Toxoplasma gondii prevalence in wild and domesticated mammals globally.

ABSTRACT: Macroecological approaches can provide valuable insight into the epidemiology of globally distributed, multi-host pathogens. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan that infects any warm-blooded animal, including humans, in almost every habitat worldwide. Toxoplasma gondii infects its hosts through oocysts in the environment, carnivory of tissue cysts within intermediate host prey and vertical transmission. These routes of infection enable specific predictions regarding the ecological and life history traits that should predispose specific taxa to higher exposure and, thus infection rates of T. gondii. Using T. gondii prevalence data compiled from 485 studies representing 533 free-ranging wild mammalian species, we examined how ecological (habitat type, trophic level) and life history (longevity,

SUBMITTER: Wilson AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10805296 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature