<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Climatic variation in low latitudes influences the dynamics and structure of parasite communities. Environmental changes caused by dry and rainy seasons alter prevalence and abundance of endoparasite communities. In addition to providing a list of the helminth species associated with the swamp frog Pseudopaludicola pocoto, this study aimed to investigate the effects of rainfall and temperature on parasitological descriptors of helminths associated with P. pocoto in an area of the semiarid zone. A total of 817 swamp frog specimens were collected between 2013 and 2017, with four sampling expeditions during the dry season and four during the rainy season. Environmental parameters of temperature and rainfall were compared to the parasitological descriptors of prevalence, abundance and mean infection intensity of the parasite community using a multivariate linear regression. A richness of eight parasite species was identified, including Nematoda (Rhabdias sp., Cosmocerca parva, Oxyascaris oxyascaris, Physaloptera sp., Brevimulticaecum sp., Spiroxys sp. and unidentified nematode) and Acanthocephala (cystacanths). Rainfall levels had a significant effect on the infection intensity of Rhabdias sp. being the presence of this species higher during the rainy season, whereas no influence of temperature was observed on the helminth community.</p></abstract>

Climatic variation in low latitudes influences the dynamics and structure of parasite communities. Environmental changes caused by dry and rainy seasons alter prevalence and abundance of endoparasite communities. In addition to providing a list of the helminth species associated with the swamp frog Pseudopaludicola pocoto, this study aimed to investigate the effects of rainfall and temperature on parasitological descriptors of helminths associated with P. pocoto in an area of the semiarid zone. A total of 817 swamp frog specimens were collected between 2013 and 2017, with four sampling expeditions during the dry season and four during the rainy season. Environmental parameters of temperature and rainfall were compared to the parasitological descriptors of prevalence, abundance and mean infection intensity of the parasite community using a multivariate linear regression. A richness of eight parasite species was identified, including Nematoda (Rhabdias sp., Cosmocerca parva, Oxyascaris oxyascaris, Physaloptera sp., Brevimulticaecum sp., Spiroxys sp. and unidentified nematode) and Acanthocephala (cystacanths). Rainfall levels had a significant effect on the infection intensity of Rhabdias sp. being the presence of this species higher during the rainy season, whereas no influence of temperature was observed on the helminth community.

Helminth community dynamics in a population of Pseudopaludicola pocoto (Leptodactylidae: Leiuperinae) from Northeast-Brazilian

Helminthologia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Climatic variation in low latitudes influences the dynamics and structure of parasite communities. Environmental changes caused by dry and rainy seasons alter...

Helminth community dynamics in a population of Pseudopaludicola pocoto (Leptodactylidae: Leiuperinae) from Northeast-Brazilian

Published Online: Oct 27, 2018

Page range: 292 - 305

Received: May 14, 2018

Accepted: Sep 13, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2018-0032

Keywords
Anura, Caatinga, helminthfauna, Neotropical, seasonality, semiarid

© 2018 C. De S. Silva, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Helminth community dynamics in a population of Pseudopaludicola pocoto (Leptodactylidae: Leiuperinae) from Northeast-Brazilian

Published Online: Oct 27, 2018

Page range: 292 - 305

Received: May 14, 2018

Accepted: Sep 13, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2018-0032

KeywordsAnura, Caatinga, helminthfauna, Neotropical, seasonality, semiarid

© 2018 C. De S. Silva, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Anura, Caatinga, helminthfauna, Neotropical, seasonality, semiarid