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Helminth parasitism in two closely related South African rodents: abundance, prevalence, species richness and impinging factors

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Abstract

We investigated patterns of helminth infection in two closely related rodents (social Rhabdomys pumilio occurring mainly in xeric habitats and solitary R. dilectus occurring mainly in mesic habitats) at 20 localities in different biomes of South Africa and asked if between-species differences were mainly caused by difference in sociality or difference in environmental conditions of their respective habitats. Helminths recovered from the gastrointestinal tract totalled 11 nematode and 5 cestode species from R. pumilio and 19 nematode and 7 cestode species from R. dilectus. In both hosts, mean abundance and prevalence of nematodes were higher compared to cestodes. Cestode infection as well as nematode abundance, species richness or prevalence did not differ between the two rodents. However, incidence of nematode infection was significantly higher in R. dilectus than in R. pumilio. Moreover, nematode numbers and species richness in infracommunities of R. pumilio inhabiting the relatively more xeric Karoo biome were significantly lower than in those inhabiting the relatively less xeric Fynbos biome. Although we could not unequivocally distinguish between effects of host sociality and environmental factors on the number of individuals and species of helminths in the two hosts, differences in the incidence of nematode infection between R. pumilio and R. dilectus as well as differences in the number of nematode individuals and species between R. pumilio from the Fynbos and the Karoo suggested the effect of environmental conditions on helminth infection to be more important than that of sociality.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on the earlier version of the manuscript. We thank private landowners and nature reserve authorities for permitting us to conduct fieldwork on their properties, under the following provincial permit numbers: Eastern Cape, CRO37/11CR; KwaZulu-Natal, OP4990/2010; Western Cape, 0035-AAA007-00423; Northern Cape, FAUNA 1076/2011, Free State, 01/8091; Gauteng, CPF 6-0153 and Mpumalanga, MPB. 5331. We thank G. Froeschke for the identification of helminths that were recovered from most of the Fynbos localities as well as N. Avenant, M.D. Chipana, J. Coetsee L. Cohen, N. du Toit, A. Engelbrecht, G. Froeschke, R.F. Masubelle, C. A. Matthee, L. Richards and L. van der Mescht for the help with the field and technical work. Financial support for the project was provided by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Agricultural Research Council—Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute and Stellenbosch University. The Grant holder acknowledges that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated by the NRF-supported research is those of the authors, and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard. This is publication no. 923 of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology.

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  1. Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Private Bag X05, Onderstepoort, 0110, South Africa

    Andrea Spickett & Kerstin Junker

  2. Department of Conservation and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa

    Andrea Spickett & Sonja Matthee

  3. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

    Boris R. Krasnov

  4. Piettasenkatu 38 A 23 33580, Tampere, Finland

    Voitto Haukisalmi

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Spickett, A., Junker, K., Krasnov, B.R. et al. Helminth parasitism in two closely related South African rodents: abundance, prevalence, species richness and impinging factors. Parasitol Res 116, 1395–1409 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5419-9

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