Journal article
Endemicity of chytridiomycosis features pathogen overdispersion
LF Grogan, AD Phillott, BC Scheele, L Berger, SD Cashins, SC Bell, R Puschendorf, LF Skerratt
Journal of Animal Ecology | WILEY | Published : 2016
Abstract
Pathogens can be critical drivers of the abundance and distribution of wild animal populations. The presence of an overdispersed pathogen load distribution between hosts (where few hosts harbour heavy parasite burdens and light infections are common) can have an important stabilizing effect on host-pathogen dynamics where infection intensity determines pathogenicity. This may potentially lead to endemicity of an introduced pathogen rather than extirpation of the host and/or pathogen. Overdispersed pathogen load distributions have rarely been considered in wild animal populations as an important component of the infection dynamics of microparasites such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fung..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We have no conflicts of interest to declare. We thank H. Ricardo and volunteers for assistance in the field, and S. Garland and R. Campbell for PCR testing. This study was conducted with approval by the James Cook University Animal Ethics Committee ( Certificate no. A970) and Queensland Environmental Protection Agency ( Fauna permit no. WISP033606305). Funding was provided by the Department of Environment Heritage via the tender 42/2004 'Experimental research to obtain a better understanding of the epidemiology, transmission and dispersal of amphibian chytrid fungus in Australian ecosystems' and the Australian Research Council grants FT100100375, LP110200240 and DP120100811.