Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Prevalence and Co-Occurrence of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Nilgiri Langur (Trachypithecus johnii) of Fragmented Landscape in Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India


Affiliations
1 Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India
2 Department of Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science, Hyderabad 500 048, India
 

Habitat fragmentation is known to alter species composition, influence infection risk and disease emergence in the native species of fragmented landscapes. This study aimed at understanding the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite in Nilgiri langur, an endemic primate species of the Western Ghats, India. We collected 283 faecal samples from 8 rainforest fragments of Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats and examined gastrointestinal parasites using faecal flotation and sedimentation techniques. A total of 13 gastrointestinal parasite taxa were recovered, which are known to infect humans and livestock. Parasite species richness was higher in disturbed forest fragments than undisturbed ones. We found Trichuris trichiura to be the most prevalent parasite taxa followed by Strongyloides sp. A negative association between Schistosoma sp. and Trichuris trichiura was also observed. Fragment size, proximity to human settlements and other habitat variables such as tree density, canopy cover and tree height did not show any significant relationship with parasitism in Nilgiri langur, which might be attributed to their ability to survive in a disturbed landscape.

Keywords

Coccidia, Forest Fragmentation, Gut Parasites, Nilgiri Langur, Positive/Negative Association, Strongyloides, Trichuris.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Laurance, W. F. and Yensen, E., Predicting the impacts of edge effects in fragmented habitats. Biol. Conserv., 1991, 55, 77–92.

  • Umapathy, G. and Kumar, A., The occurrence of arboreal mammals in the rain forest fragments in the Anamalai Hills, South India. Biol. Conserv., 2000, 92, 311–319.

  • Fahrig, L., Effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst., 2003, 34, 487–515.

  • Gillespie, T. R., Greiner, E. C. and Chapman, C. A., Gastrointestinal parasites of the colobus monkeys of Uganda. J. Parasitol., 2005, 91, 569–573.

  • Schalk, G. and Forbes, M. R., Male biases in parasitism of mammals: effects of study type, host age, and parasite taxon. Oikos, 1997, 78, 67–74.

  • Nunn, C. L. and Altizer, S., Infectious diseases in primates. Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution, Oxford University Press, 2006.

  • Freeland, W. J., Parasites and the coexistence of animal host species. Am. Nat., 1983, 121, 223–236.

  • Stoner, K. E., Prevalence and intensity of intestinal parasites in mantled howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in northeastern Costa Rica: implications for conservation biology. Conserv. Biol., 1996, l10, 539–546.

  • Altizer, S., Dobson, A., Hosseini, P., Hudson, P., Pascual, M. and Rohani, P., Seasonality and the dynamics of infectious diseases. Ecol. Lett., 2006, 9, 467–484.

  • Bezjian, M., Gillespie, T. R., Chapman, C. A. and Greiner, E. C., Coprologic evidence of gastrointestinal helminths of forest Baboons, Papio Anubis, in Kibale National Park, Uganda. J. Wildl. Dis., 2008, 44, 878–887.

  • MacIntosh, A. J., Jacobs, A., Garcia, C., Shimizu, K., Mouri, K., Huffman, M. A. and Hernandez, A. D., Monkeys in the middle: parasite transmission through the social network of a wild primate. PLoS ONE, 2012, 7, e51144.

  • Umapathy, G. and Kumar, A., Impacts of forest fragmentation on lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri langur in Western Ghats, south India. In Primates in Fragments (ed. Marsh, L. K.), Kulwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, New York, 2003, pp. 163–189.

  • Poirier, F. E., Dominance structure of the nilgiri langur, Presbytis johnii, of South India. Folia Primatol., 1970, 12, 161–186.

  • Hussain, S., Ram, M. S., Kumar, A., Shivaji, S. and Umapathy, G., Human presence increases parasitic load in endangered liontailed macaques (Macaca silenus) in its fragmented rainforest habitats in Southern India. PLoS ONE, 2013, 8, e63685.

  • Chakraborty, D., Hussain, S., Reddy, D. M., Raut, S., Tiwari, S., Kumar, V. and Umapathy, G., Mammalian gastrointestinal parasites in rainforest remnants of Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India. J. Biosci., 2015, 40, 399–406.

  • Chakraborty, D., Tiwari, S., Reddy, D. M. and Umapathy, G., Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in civets of fragmented rainforest patches in Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India. J. Parasitol., 2016, 102, 463–467.

  • Umapathy, G., Hussain, S. and Shivaji, S., Impact of habitat fragmentation on the demography of lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) populations in the rainforests of Anamalai hills, Western Ghats, India. Int. J. Primatol., 2011, 32, 889–900.

  • Eberhard, M. L., da Silva, A. J., Lilley, B. G. and Pieniazek, N. J., Morphologic and molecular characterization of new Cyclosporaspecies from Ethiopian monkeys: C. cercopitheci sp. n., C. colobi sp. n., and C. papionis sp. n. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 1999, 5, 651–658.

  • Gillespie, T. R., Noninvasive assessment of gastrointestinal parasite infections in free-ranging primates. Int. J. Primatol., 2006, 27, 1129–1143.

  • Sloss, M. W., Kemp, R. L. and Zajac, A. M., Fecal examination: dogs and cats. In Veterinary Clincal Parasitology, Ames: Iowa State University Press, Sixth edn, 1994.

  • Foreyt, W., Vet. Parasitol, Reference Manual, Ames, Iowa, Blackwell, 2001.

  • Poirier, F. E., Analysis of a nilgiri langur (Presbytis johnii) home range change. Primates, 1968, 9, 29–43.

  • Real, R. and Vargas, J. M., The probabilistic basis of Jaccard’s index of similarity. Syst. Biol., 1996, 45, 380–385.

  • Fellis, K. J., Negovetich, N. J., Esch, G. W., Horak, I. G. and Boomker, J., Patterns of association, nestedness, and species co-occurrence of helminth parasites in the greater kudu, Tragelaphus strepsiceros, in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, and the Etosha National Park, Namibia. J. Parasitol., 2003, 89, 899–907.

  • Hammer, Ø., Harper, D. A. T. and Ryan, P. D., PAST-Palaeontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaentol. Electron., 2001, 4, 1–9.

  • Colwell, R. K., Chao, A., Gotelli, N. J., Lin, S.-Y., Mao, C. X., Chazdon, R. L. and Longino, J. T., Models and estimators linking individual-based and sample-based rarefaction, extrapolation and comparison of assemblages. J. Plant Ecol., 2012, 5, 3–21.

  • Toft, J. D., The pathoparasitology of the alimentary tract and pancreas of nonhuman primates: a review. Vet. Pathol., 1982, 19, 44–92.

  • Mbora, D. N. and McPeek, M. A., Host density and human activities mediate increased parasite prevalence and richness in primates threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. J. Anim. Ecol., 2009, 78, 210–218.

  • Gillespie, T. R., Chapman, C. A. and Greiner, E. C., Effects of logging on gastrointestinal parasite infections and infection risk in African primates. J. Ecol., 2005, 42, 699–707.

  • Trejo-Macías, G. and Estrada, A., Mosqueda Cabrera M Survey of helminth parasites in populations of Alouatta palliata mexicana and A. pigra in continuous and in fragmented habitat in southern Mexico. Int. J. Primatol., 2007, 28, 931–945.

  • Harris, T. R., Chapman, C. A. and Monfort, S. L., Small folivorous primate groups exhibit behavioral and physiological effects of food scarcity. Behav. Ecol., 2010, 21, 46–56.

  • González-Hernández, M., Rangel-Negrín, A., Schoof, V. A. M., Chapman, C. A., Canales-Espinosa, D. and Dias, P. A. D., Transmission patterns of pinworms in two sympatric congeneric primate species. Int. J. Primatol., 2014, 35, 445–462.

  • Zommers, Z., Macdonald, D. W., Johnson, P. J. and Gillespie, T. R., Impact of human activities on chimpanzee ground use and parasitism (Pan troglodytes). Conserv. Lett., 2013, 6, 264–273.

  • Gillespie, T. R. and Chapman, C. A., Forest fragmentation, the decline of an endangered primate, and changes in host–parasite interactions relative to an unfragmented forest. Am. J. Primatol., 2008, 70, 222–230.

  • Gillespie, T. R. and Chapman, C. A., Prediction of parasite infection dynamics in primate metapopulations based on attributes of forest fragmentation. Conserv. Biol., 2006, 20, 441–448.

  • Poulin, R., Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites: from Individuals to Communities, Chapman and Hall, London, 1998.

  • Nunn, C. L., Altizer, S., Jones, K. E. and Sechrest, W., Comparative tests of parasite species richness in primates. Am. Nat., 2003, 162, 597–614.

  • Petrasova, J. et al., Gastrointestinal parasites of indigenous and introduced primate species of Rubondo Island National Park, Tanzania. Int. J. Primatol., 2010, 31, 920–936.

  • Strait, K., Else, J. G. and Eberhard, M. L., Parasitic diseases of nonhuman primates. In Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical. Research (eds Abee, C. R. et al.), Academic Press, New York, 2012, p. 868.

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 September 2015, retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/.

  • Oku, Y. et al., A survey of abomasal and duodenal nematodes in cattle in Hokkaido, Japan. Jpn. J. Vet. Res., 1987, 35, 67–72.

  • Curry, A. J., Else, K. J., Jones, F., Bancroftj, A., Grencis, R. K. and Dunne, D. W., Evidence that cytokine mediated immune interactions induced by Schistosoma mansoni alter disease outcome in mice concurrently infected with Trichuris muris. J. Exp. Med., 1995, 181, 769–774.


Abstract Views: 412

PDF Views: 129




  • Prevalence and Co-Occurrence of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Nilgiri Langur (Trachypithecus johnii) of Fragmented Landscape in Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, India

Abstract Views: 412  |  PDF Views: 129

Authors

Sunil Tiwari
Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India
D. Mahender Reddy
Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India
Muthulingam Pradheeps
Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India
Gubbi Shamanna Sreenivasamurthy
Department of Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science, Hyderabad 500 048, India
Govindhaswamy Umapathy
Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India

Abstract


Habitat fragmentation is known to alter species composition, influence infection risk and disease emergence in the native species of fragmented landscapes. This study aimed at understanding the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite in Nilgiri langur, an endemic primate species of the Western Ghats, India. We collected 283 faecal samples from 8 rainforest fragments of Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats and examined gastrointestinal parasites using faecal flotation and sedimentation techniques. A total of 13 gastrointestinal parasite taxa were recovered, which are known to infect humans and livestock. Parasite species richness was higher in disturbed forest fragments than undisturbed ones. We found Trichuris trichiura to be the most prevalent parasite taxa followed by Strongyloides sp. A negative association between Schistosoma sp. and Trichuris trichiura was also observed. Fragment size, proximity to human settlements and other habitat variables such as tree density, canopy cover and tree height did not show any significant relationship with parasitism in Nilgiri langur, which might be attributed to their ability to survive in a disturbed landscape.

Keywords


Coccidia, Forest Fragmentation, Gut Parasites, Nilgiri Langur, Positive/Negative Association, Strongyloides, Trichuris.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv113%2Fi11%2F2194-2200