Migratory hosts can maintain the high-dose/refuge effect in a structured host-parasite system: The case of sea lice and salmon.

ABSTRACT: Migration can reduce parasite burdens in migratory hosts, but it connects populations and can drive disease dynamics in domestic species. Farmed salmon are infested by sea louse parasites, often carried by migratory wild salmonids, resulting in a costly problem for industry and risk to wild populations when farms amplify louse numbers. Chemical treatment can control lice, but resistance has evolved in many salmon-farming regions. Resistance has, however, been slow to evolve in the north-east Pacific Ocean, where large wild-salmon populations harbour large sea louse populations. Using a mathematical model of host-macroparasite dynamics, we explored the roles of domestic, wild oceanic and connective migratory host populations in maintaining treatment susceptibility in associated sea lice. Ou

SUBMITTER: Bateman AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7691465 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature