Seasonal differences in parasite load in a short-lived lizard
Ko-Huan Lee
A * , Martin J. Whiting A and Stephan T. Leu B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
B School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA 5371, Australia.
Australian Journal of Zoology 70(1) 36-41 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO22039
Submitted: 6 May 2022 Accepted: 14 October 2022 Published: 21 November 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Parasite load can vary with seasonality, but this is rarely quantified. The garden skink (Lampropholis guichenoti) is host to multiple species of endoparasite. To measure seasonal effects of parasite transmission we established three captive groups of wild-caught individuals in which 2 of 16 individuals (12.5%) were initially infected with nematodes. We collected three faecal samples from each lizard, a sample at the beginning and at the end of the non-activity season and at the end of the following activity season. We measured parasite load (ascarid group) by counting parasite eggs per gram of faeces using a microscope. We found that parasite load was significantly higher in the activity season than in the non-activity season. The prevalence of parasites increased from 15.9% in the non-activity season to 72.5% in the activity season. The activity season is characterised by greater host activity and warmer ambient temperatures, which promote parasite egg survival in the environment as well as egg development. Taken together, this facilitates parasite transmission and could ultimately explain the higher parasite load during the activity season.
Keywords: Ascaridae, endoparasite, Lampropholis, life history, nematode, parasitism, reptile, roundworm.
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