Document Type

Article

Keywords

Neotropics, Callitrichidae, free-ranging, parasite infections, baseline data

Abstract

The establishment of baseline data on parasites from wild primates is essential to understand how changes in habitat or climatic disturbances will impact parasite-host relationships. In nature, multiparasitic infections of primates usually fluctuate temporally and seasonally, implying that the acquisition of reliable data must occur over time. Individual parasite infection data from two wild populations of New World primates, the saddleback (Leontocebusweddelli) and emperor (Saguinusimperator) tamarin, were collected over three years to establish baseline levels of helminth prevalence and parasite species richness (PSR). Secondarily, we explore variation in parasite prevalence across age and sex classes, test non-random associations of parasite cooccurrence, and assess the relationship between group size and PSR. From 288 fecal samples across 105 individuals (71 saddleback and 34 emperor tamarins), ten parasite taxa were identified by light microscopy following centrifugation and ethyl-acetate sedimentation. Of these taxa, none were host-specific, Dicrocoeliidae and Cestoda prevalences differed between host species, Prosthenorchisand Strongylida were the most prevalent. Host age was positively associated with Prosthenorchisova and filariform larva, but negatively with cestode and the Rhabditoidea ova. We detected no differences between expected and observed levels of co-infection, nor between group size and parasite species richness over 30 group-years. Logistic models of individual infection status did not identify a sex bias; however, age and species predicted the presence of four and three parasite taxa, respectively, with saddleback tamarins exhibiting higher PSR. Now that we have reliable baseline data for future monitoring of these populations, next steps involve the molecular characterization of these parasites, and exploration of linkages with health parameters.

Publication Date

12-2019

Publication Title

American Journal of Primatology

ISSN

0275-2565, 1098-2345

Volume

81

Issue

12

First Page

e23063

DOI

10.1002/ajp.23063

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