Efficiency of anthelmintic treatment and its effect on microparasite dynamics in wild Mastomys natalensis

IF 2.2 3区医学 Q3 ECOLOGY

International Journal for Parasitology-Parasites and Wildlife Pub Date : 2025-06-04 DOI:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2025.101098

Marre van de Ven , Bram Vanden Broecke , Alexis Ribas , Herwig Leirs , Christopher Sabuni , Joachim Mariën

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Abstract

Co-infections between helminths and microparasites can modulate the host immune response and alter disease dynamics, with potential implications for public health. However, identifying causal relationships in natural populations is challenging due to the complexity of ecological interactions. Perturbation experiments, where a specific parasite is selectively reduced, offers a powerful framework to directly test such interactions under natural conditions. In this study, we investigated potential helminth-microparasite interactions in the multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) in Tanzania by experimentally reducing helminth infections in both captive and wild populations. We first confirmed that two anthelmintic treatments, ivermectin and pyrantel pamoate, effectively reduced gastrointestinal nematode burdens in wild-caught individuals. We then assessed whether helminth reduction influenced the prevalence of viral and bacterial infections in free-living populations. Our results revealed no significant short-term effect of anthelmintic treatment on microparasitic infections. These findings suggest that helminth-microparasite interactions in M. natalensis may be subtle, context-dependent, or require longer timescales to become apparent.

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驱虫效果及其对野生石竹微虫动态的影响

蠕虫和微寄生虫之间的共同感染可以调节宿主的免疫反应并改变疾病动态，对公共卫生具有潜在影响。然而，由于生态相互作用的复杂性，确定自然种群中的因果关系是具有挑战性的。在微扰实验中，一种特定的寄生虫被选择性地减少，这为在自然条件下直接测试这种相互作用提供了一个强大的框架。在这项研究中，我们通过实验减少圈养和野生种群的蠕虫感染，研究了坦桑尼亚多雌鼠（Mastomys natalensis）中潜在的蠕虫-微寄生虫相互作用。我们首先证实了两种驱虫治疗，伊维菌素和吡喃酯，有效地减少了野生捕获个体胃肠道线虫的负担。然后，我们评估了蠕虫减少是否影响了自由生活人群中病毒和细菌感染的流行。我们的研究结果显示，驱虫药治疗对微寄生虫感染没有显著的短期效果。这些发现表明，在M. natalensis中，蠕虫与微寄生虫的相互作用可能是微妙的，依赖于环境的，或者需要更长的时间尺度才能变得明显。

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来源期刊

International Journal for Parasitology-Parasites and Wildlife Medicine-Infectious Diseases

CiteScore

3.80

自引率

5.60%

发文量

113

审稿时长

45 days

期刊介绍： The International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (IJP-PAW) publishes the results of original research on parasites of all wildlife, invertebrate and vertebrate. This includes free-ranging, wild populations, as well as captive wildlife, semi-domesticated species (e.g. reindeer) and farmed populations of recently domesticated or wild-captured species (e.g. cultured fishes). Articles on all aspects of wildlife parasitology are welcomed including taxonomy, biodiversity and distribution, ecology and epidemiology, population biology and host-parasite relationships. The impact of parasites on the health and conservation of wildlife is seen as an important area covered by the journal especially the potential role of environmental factors, for example climate. Also important to the journal is ''one health'' and the nature of interactions between wildlife, people and domestic animals, including disease emergence and zoonoses.