Food Subsidy Effects on Host Foraging Behavior Shape Host-Macroparasite Infection Dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic food subsidies can have profound influences on wildlife behavior and health, including exposure to parasites. In many host-macroparasite systems, parasite exposure is tied to foraging behavior, but how different distributions of food subsidy shape macroparasite encounter and population-level impacts is poorly understood. Here we modify a mathematical model of macroparasite transmission to explore how food subsidies could change parasite encounter rates and between-host variation in parasite burdens, reflecting changes in host foraging and conspecific overlap. Hosts experience the highest average parasite abundance and associated reductions in population size when food subsidies increase and homogenize parasite encounter rates, for example when hosts center their home ranges o

SUBMITTER: Haile BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12831021 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature