In:
Journal of Animal Ecology, Wiley, Vol. 83, No. 5 ( 2014-09), p. 1113-1123
Abstract:
Parasites are thought to have numerous negative effects on their hosts. These negative effects may be associated with stress in a host. We evaluated the effects of four species of flea ectoparasites ( P arapulex chephrenis , S ynosternus cleopatrae , X enopsylla conformis and X enopsylla ramesis ) on non‐specific responses of eight species of rodents ( M eriones crassus , G erbillus dasyurus , G erbillus andersoni , G erbillus pyramidum , G erbillus nanus , A comys cahirinus , A comys russatus and M esocricetus auratus ) and measured faecal glucocorticoid metabolites concentrations ( FGMC ) produced by the hosts. We found no effect of body mass of an individual rodent on FGMC s. Parasitism by fleas with a ‘stay on the host body’ exploitation strategy was associated with higher host FGMC s than parasitism by fleas that spent most of their life ‘off‐host’. FGMC s among rodents infested by the same flea species were correlated positively with the phylogenetic distance of a given rodent from the principal host of this flea; changes in FGMC s were lower in the host species more closely related to the flea's principal host. Changes in FMGC s of a host while parasitized were correlated with a host's change in body mass, where hosts that lost more body mass had higher FGMC s. Our results suggest that ectoparasitism can be stressful to their hosts. However, the occurrence of parasite‐induced stress seems to depend on the identity of both host and parasite species and the evolutionary history of a host–parasite association. To our knowledge, this is the first multispecies study to evaluate the effect of ectoparasites on glucocorticoid hormones in small mammals.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0021-8790
,
1365-2656
DOI:
10.1111/jane.2014.83.issue-5
DOI:
10.1111/1365-2656.12217
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2014
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2006616-8
SSG:
12
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