English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  The dominant  Gasterophilus  species in the desert steppe (Xinjiang, China)  Gasterophilus pecorum  poses a serious threat to the reintroduced Przewalski’s horses. We investigated the distribution pattern of  G. pecorum  eggs in June 2017.    Methods  Two sampling methods, transect and grid, were used, and the results were analyzed via geostatistics by semivariance. The nest quadrat was used to determine the optimal quadrat size.    Results  Eggs were found in 99 quadrats (63.1%) and 187 clusters (1.5%) of  Stipa caucasica  on the steppe. The mean oviposition count of a cluster was 3.8 ± 1.6. Three-eggs is the mode of which females oviposit on each ovigerous  S. caucasica  (22.0%) .  Semivariogram analysis revealed that the distance of spatial dependence for eggs was 921 m, 1233 m and 1097 m for transect 1, transect 2 and grid methods, respectively, while spatial continuity was 62%, 77% and 57.0% for transect 1, transect 2 and grid, respectively. The eggs showed a patchy, aggregated distribution pattern. This suggested the spherical model is most applicable. The proportion of ovigerous  S. caucasica  was significantly correlated with the distance from water resources ( r  = − 0.382,  p  = 0).    Conclusion  Our findings indicated that diversification of  G. pecorum  oviposition was a new adaptative strategy for its survival in the desert steppe ecological niche. This made it more efficient at infecting hosts in the local environment. Areas surrounding water resources, especially around the drinking paths of equids (500 m radius surrounding the water), were concentrated epidemic areas. It is suggested that more attention to be paid to the ecological characteristics of  G. pecorum  in order to develop control measures that would reduce the infection risk for Przewalski’s horses.    Supplementary Information  The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-021-01897-4.

Spatial distribution of Gasterophilus pecorum (Diptera) eggs in the desert steppe of the Kalamaili Nature Reserve (Xinjiang, China)