External disturbances impact helminth-host interactions by affecting dynamics of infection, parasite traits, and host immune responses.

ABSTRACT: External perturbations, such as multispecies infections or anthelmintic treatments, can alter host-parasite interactions with consequences on the dynamics of infection. While the overall profile of infection might appear fundamentally conserved at the host population level, perturbations can disproportionately affect components of parasite demography or host responses, and ultimately impact parasite fitness and long-term persistence.We took an immuno-epidemiological approach to this reasoning and examined a rabbit-helminth system where animals were trickle-dosed with either one or two helminth species, treated halfway through the experiment with an anthelmintic and reinfected one month later following the same initial regime. Parasite traits (body length and fecundity) and host immune resp

SUBMITTER: Cattadori IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6912924 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature