{"id":2806,"date":"2021-08-13T15:56:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T05:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2806"},"modified":"2021-08-05T15:59:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T05:59:44","slug":"abstracts-toxoplasma-gondii-infections-are-associated-with-costly-boldness-toward-felids-in-a-wild-host","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2806","title":{"rendered":"Abstracts: Toxoplasma gondii infections are associated with costly boldness toward felids in a wild host"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toxoplasma gondii<\/em> is hypothesized to manipulate the behavior of warm-blooded hosts to promote trophic transmission into the parasite’s definitive feline hosts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key prediction of this hypothesis is that T. gondii<\/em> infections of non-feline hosts are associated with costly behavior toward T. gondii<\/em>‘s definitive hosts; however, this effect has not been documented in any of the parasite’s diverse wild hosts during naturally occurring interactions with felines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Here, three decades of field observations reveal that T. gondii<\/em>-infected hyena cubs approach lions more closely than uninfected peers and have higher rates of lion mortality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discuss these results in light of 1) the possibility that hyena boldness represents an extended phenotype of the parasite, and 2) alternative scenarios in which T. gondii<\/em> has not undergone selection to manipulate behavior in host hyenas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both cases remain plausible and have important ramifications for T. gondii<\/em>‘s impacts on host behavior and fitness in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eben Gering<\/a> <\/sup>#<\/sup> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>2<\/sup><\/a>, Zachary M Laubach<\/a> <\/sup>#<\/sup> <\/sup>3<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>4<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>5<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>6<\/sup><\/a>, Patty Sue D Weber<\/a> <\/sup>7<\/sup><\/a>, Gisela Soboll Hussey<\/a> <\/sup>8<\/sup><\/a>, Kenna D S Lehmann<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>9<\/sup><\/a>, Tracy M Montgomery<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>9<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>10<\/sup><\/a>, Julie W Turner<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>9<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>11<\/sup><\/a>, Wei Perng<\/a> <\/sup>12<\/sup><\/a>, Malit O Pioon<\/a> <\/sup>9<\/sup><\/a>, Kay E Holekamp<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>9<\/sup><\/a>, Thomas Getty<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 22;12(1):3842. doi:\n10.1038\/s41467-021-24092-x.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup>Michigan State University, Department of Integrative\nBiology and Program in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, East Lansing, MI, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/sup>Nova Southeastern University, Department of\nBiological Sciences, Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Fort Lauderdale,\nFL, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/sup>Michigan State University, Department of Integrative\nBiology and Program in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, East Lansing, MI, USA.\nzachary.laubach@colorado.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4<\/sup>University of Colorado Boulder, Department of\nEcology and Evolutionary Biology, Boulder, CO, USA.\nzachary.laubach@colorado.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5<\/sup>Mara Hyena Project, Narok County, Kenya.\nzachary.laubach@colorado.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6<\/sup>Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,\nUniversity of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. zachary.laubach@colorado.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7<\/sup>Michigan State University, Department of Large\nAnimal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, East Lansing, MI,\nUSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8<\/sup>Michigan State University, Department of\nPathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation, College of Veterinary Medicine, East\nLansing, MI, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9<\/sup>Mara Hyena Project, Narok County, Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10<\/sup>Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Department\nfor the Ecology of Animal Societies, Konstanz, Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11<\/sup>Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of\nBiology, St. John’s, NL, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12<\/sup>LEAD Center & University of Colorado, School of\nPublic Health, Aurora, CO, United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/sup>Contributed equally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toxoplasma gondii is hypothesized to manipulate the behavior of warm-blooded hosts to promote trophic transmission into the parasite’s definitive feline hosts. A key prediction of this hypothesis is that T. gondii infections of non-feline hosts are associated with costly behavior toward T. gondii‘s definitive hosts; however, this effect has not been documented in any of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,922,1834,55,2197],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abstracts","tag-abstracts-2","tag-infections","tag-parasites","tag-research","tag-toxoplasma-gondii"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Abstracts","slug":"abstracts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":237,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":237,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Abstracts","category_nicename":"abstracts","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Toxoplasma gondii is hypothesized to manipulate the behavior of warm-blooded hosts to promote trophic transmission into the parasite’s definitive feline hosts. A key prediction of this hypothesis is that T. gondii infections of non-feline hosts are associated with costly behavior toward T. gondii‘s definitive hosts; however, this effect has not been documented in any of the parasite’s diverse wild hosts..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"3":{"name":"Abstracts","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=3"}},"tags_names":{"54":{"name":"abstracts","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=abstracts-2"},"922":{"name":"infections","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=infections"},"1834":{"name":"parasites","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=parasites"},"55":{"name":"research","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=research"},"2197":{"name":"Toxoplasma gondii","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=toxoplasma-gondii"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}