Roux Olivier, Vantaux Amélie, Roche Benjamin, Yameogo K. B., Dabiré K. R., Diabaté A., Simard Frédéric, Lefèvre Thierry. (2015). Evidence for carry-over effects of predator exposure on pathogen transmission potential. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, 282 (1821), p. art. 20152430 [10 p.]. ISSN 0962-8452.
Titre du document
Evidence for carry-over effects of predator exposure on pathogen transmission potential
Roux Olivier, Vantaux Amélie, Roche Benjamin, Yameogo K. B., Dabiré K. R., Diabaté A., Simard Frédéric, Lefèvre Thierry
Source
Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, 2015,
282 (1821), p. art. 20152430 [10 p.] ISSN 0962-8452
Accumulating evidence indicates that species interactions such as competition and predation can indirectly alter interactions with other community members, including parasites. For example, presence of predators can induce behavioural defences in the prey, resulting in a change in susceptibility to parasites. Such predator-induced phenotypic changes may be especially pervasive in prey with discrete larval and adult stages, for which exposure to predators during larval development can have strong carry-over effects on adult phenotypes. To the best of our knowledge, no study to date has examined possible carry-over effects of predator exposure on pathogen transmission. We addressed this question using a natural food web consisting of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the mosquito vector Anopheles coluzzii and a backswimmer, an aquatic predator of mosquito larvae. Although predator exposure did not significantly alter mosquito susceptibility to P. falciparum, it incurred strong fitness costs on other key mosquito life-history traits, including larval development, adult size, fecundity and longevity. Using an epidemiological model, we show that larval predator exposure should overall significantly decrease malaria transmission. These results highlight the importance of taking into account the effect of environmental stressors on disease ecology and epidemiology.
