Title
Seasonal variation of gastro-intestinal helminths of three bat species in the dry forest of western Mexico
Other title
Variación estacional de helmintos gastrointestinales en tres especies de murciélagos en el bosque tropical caducifolio del occidente de México
Date Issued
01 September 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Salinas-Ramos V.B.
Herrera L.G.
Hernández-Mena D.I.
Osorio-Sarabia D.
León-Règagnon V.
Publisher(s)
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Abstract
Studies on helminths of chiropterans are relatively uncommon compared to those of other animals, and seasonal changes in helminth load have been rarely examined. We characterized the gastro-intestinal helminth load of 3 bats species to test for the existence of seasonal changes in response to known seasonal environmental and bat prey fluctuations. We did not find seasonal variation in most of the cases. However, the prevalence of 4 endoparasite species was significantly higher during one of the seasons. The highest richness was registered in Pteronotus parnellii during the wet season. The effective number of species was higher during the dry season in the 3 species of Pteronotus. Diet seems to be an important driver of helminth infracommunity structure, but we found heterogeneous patterns in the relationship between diversity and load of helminths and seasonal patterns of bat's diets and abundance of potential intermediate hosts.
Start page
646
End page
653
Volume
88
Issue
3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Parasitología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85028316440
Source
Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad
ISSN of the container
18703453
DOI of the container
10.1016/j.rmb.2017.07.007
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by grants given by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Conacyt, Red temática del código de barras de la vida, 2013–2015) to VLR; by Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico ( IN202113 ) to LGHM. VBSR thanks Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Conacyt for the scholarship received. We also thank Carlos A. González-Castro, Andrea Rebollo-Hernández and Alejandro Zaldívar-Riverón for their assistance in the field and the staff at the Estación de Biología Chamela, UNAM for hosting this work.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus