Nematode community structure in the brush-tailed rock-wallaby, Petrogale penicillata: Implications of captive breeding and the translocation of wildlife
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Abstract
Despite an increasing appreciation of the disease risks associated with wild-life
translocations, the effects which captive breeding programs exert on parasite communities
remain understudied. This may be attributed, in part, to the current lack of rapid
and cost-effective techniques for comparing parasite assemblages between host populations.
Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of the rDNA region
encompassing the internal transcribed spacers (ITS-1 and ITS-2) and 5.8S rRNA gene
was used to characterise bursate nematode communities (suborder Strongylida) across
two captive and two non-captive colonies of the threatened brush-tailed rock-wallaby,
Petrogale penicillata. A clone library was constructed and a restriction enzyme selected
to differentiate the predominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) by the unique
peak profiles they generated. The prevalence, intensity of infection and comparative
structure of strongylid assemblages was evaluated for each of the host colonies. Compared
to wild conspecifics, captive wallabies exhibited a reduced prevalence of infection
and significantly lower faecal egg counts. T-RFLP revealed that a high proportion
of the OTUs co-occurred across three of the four study locations. Despite this, the
composition of strongylid assemblages was significantly different between the colonies,
even when host translocation events had occurred. These results suggest that captive
breeding programs may exert a profound impact on parasitic helminth assemblages. Developing
efficient techniques for characterising community dynamics in potentially pathogenic
organisms is critical to the long term success of species recovery efforts worldwide.