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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Mark Booth
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2017 The Authors. Parasitic infections are ubiquitous in wildlife, livestock and human populations, and healthy ecosystems are often parasite rich. Yet, their negative impacts can be extreme. Understanding how both anticipated and cryptic changes in a system might affect parasite transmission at an individual, local and global level is critical for sustainable control in humans and livestock. Here we highlight and synthesize evidence regarding potential effects of ‘system changes’ (both climatic and anthropogenic) on parasite transmission from wild host-parasite systems. Such information could inform more efficient and sustainable parasite control programmes in domestic animals or humans. Many examples from diverse terrestrial and aquatic natural systems show how abiotic and biotic factors affected by system changes can interact additively, multiplicatively or antagonistically to influence parasite transmission, including through altered habitat structure, biodiversity, host demographics and evolution. Despite this, few studies of managed systems explicitly consider these higher-order interactions, or the subsequent effects of parasite evolution, which can conceal or exaggerate measured impacts of control actions. We call for a more integrated approach to investigating transmission dynamics, which recognizes these complexities and makes use of new technologies for data capture and monitoring, and to support robust predictions of altered parasite dynamics in a rapidly changing world.
Author(s): Cable J, Barber I, Boag B, Ellison AR, Morgan ER, Murray K, Pascoe EL, Sait SM, Wilson AJ, Booth M
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Year: 2017
Volume: 372
Issue: 1719
Print publication date: 05/05/2017
Online publication date: 13/03/2017
Acceptance date: 25/08/2016
ISSN (print): 0962-8436
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2970
Publisher: Royal Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0088
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0088
PubMed id: 28289256
