Helminth infection in a suburban ungulate population is driven more by age than landscape variables

Abstract

Wildlife are increasingly common in suburban environments as towns and cities spread into surrounding rural areas. Many wildlife species have adapted to these new environments; however, we know comparatively little about how parasites respond urbanization of host habitats. Parasites are important members within ecological communities and alterations to transmission dynamics are known to alter host population dynamics. For complex life cycle parasites (parasites that use multiple different host species), suburban environments are thought to decrease transmission. Here, infection metrics of two parasites of white-tailed deer, giant liver flukes and thin-necked bladderworms, are examined to determine how successful these parasites are in a suburban environment. Additionally, land cover variables within suburban deer hunting areas are used to test if infection prevalence is associated with certain landscape level metrics. Results indicate that both parasites are common across the suburban landscape and are commonly found coinfecting the same hosts. Prevalence of neither parasite was strongly related to landscape variables within deer hunting areas, but fluke intensity was negatively correlated with the proportion of human development on the landscape. Overall, the scale of transmission events and host-parasite biology may explain why landscape metrics are weak predictors of infection risk in this system.