Assessing Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) Demographics to Monitor Wildlife Diseases: A Spotlight on Echinococcus multilocularis.

ABSTRACT: The assessment of red fox population density is considered relevant to the surveillance of zoonotic agents vectored by this species. However, density is difficult to estimate reliably, since the ecological plasticity and elusive behavior of this carnivore hinder classic methods of inference. In this study, red fox population density was estimated using a non-invasive molecular spatial capture-recapture (SCR) approach in two study areas: one in a known hotspot of the zoonotic cestode Echinococcus multilocularis, and another naïve to the parasite. Parasitological investigations on collected samples confirmed the presence of the parasite exclusively in the former area; the SCR results indicated a higher fox population density in the control area than in the hotspot, suggesting either t

SUBMITTER: Celva R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9862526 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature