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. 2011:1.
doi: 10.3402/iee.v1i0.7346. Epub 2011 Sep 19.

The impact of multiple infections on wild animal hosts: a review

Frédéric Bordes  1 , Serge Morand
Affiliations

The impact of multiple infections on wild animal hosts: a review

Frédéric Bordes et al. Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 2011.

Abstract

Field parasitological studies consistently demonstrate the reality of polyparasitism in natural systems. However, only recently, studies from ecological and evolutionary fields have emphasised a broad spectrum of potential multiple infections-related impacts. The main goal of our review is to reunify the different approaches on the impacts of polyparasitism, not only from laboratory or human medical studies but also from field or theoretical studies. We put forward that ecological and epidemiological determinants to explain the level of polyparasitism, which regularly affects not only host body condition, survival or reproduction but also host metabolism, genetics or immune investment. Despite inherent limitations of all these studies, multiple infections should be considered more systematically in wildlife to better appreciate the importance of parasite diversity in wildlife, cumulative effects of parasitism on the ecology and evolution of their hosts.

Keywords: Wildlife; coinfections; life-history traits; multiparasitism; parasite diversity; polyparasitism.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Polyparasitism imposes cumulative impacts on their hosts with evolutionary consequences on adaptive responses to limit these impacts, which in turn may affect the determinants of multiple infections.
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