The Occurrence and Meta-Analysis of Investigations on Intestinal Parasitic Infections Among Captive Wild Mammals in Mainland China.

Abstract

This study investigated the infection rates of intestinal parasites in captive wild animals from 2000 to 2024 and analyzed the associated risk factors using a meta-analysis. We retrieved 29 studies, with a total of 8421 captive wild mammals, published between 2000 and 2024. We used the DerSimonian-Laird model and calculated infection rate estimates with the variance stabilizing double arcsine transformation. The results revealed that the overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in captive wild mammals in mainland China was found to be 53.9%. The highest infection rate was observed for nematodes at 45.1%. Seasonal subgroup analysis revealed the highest incidence in summer at 61.8% and 61.6% in winter. In the class order Mammalia, the highest infection rate was found in the Primates at 66.5% and similarly high values were determined in several other orders like Artiodactyla (59%), Rodentia (57.1%), Carnivora (53.3%) and extremely low in Proboscidea (19.9%). The highest overall infection rate was recorded in summer. The infection rate of gastrointestinal parasites in captive wild mammals in mainland China is notably high. Additionally, parasitic infection rates in captive animals were found to be lower in economically developed regions of mainland China.