Wildlife Disease and Zoonotics
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
December 1999
Abstract
Parasitism is an intimate relationship between two different species in which one (parasite) uses the other (host) as its environment from which it derives nourishment. Parasites are a highly diverse group of organisms that have evolved different strategies for infecting their hosts. Some, such as lice and ticks, are found on the external parts of the body (ectoparasites), but most are found internally (endoparasites). Some are microscopic, such as the blood protozoans that cause avian malaria; however, many are macroscopic. Life cycles differ greatly between major types of parasites and are generally classified as direct or indirect (Table 1). Direct life cycles do not require an intermediate host (Fig. 1A). For direct life cycles, only a definitive host is required: the species in which the parasite reaches sexual maturity and produces progeny. Indirect life cycles may involve one or more intermediate hosts (Fig. 1B and C). Intermediate hosts are required by the parasite for completion of its life cycle because of the morphological and physiological changes that usually take place in the parasite within those hosts. Wild birds can serve as the definitive hosts for most of the parasites that are discussed in the following chapters. In addition, paratenic or transport hosts are present in some parasite life cycles. The parasites generally do not undergo development in paratenic hosts. Instead, paratenic hosts provide both an ecological and temporal (time) bridge for the parasite to move through the environment and infect the definitive host. Typically, in these situations one or more intermediate hosts are required for development of the parasite but they are not fed upon by the bird. Instead, the bird feeds on the paratenic hosts, which in turn have fed on the intermediate host(s), thereby, “transporting” the parasite to the bird (Fig. 2).
Comments
Published in Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases: General Field Procedures and Diseases of Birds, edited by Milton Friend and J. Christian Franson, USGS-National Wildlife Health Center, 1999 (online 2007; http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/).