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Inter‐annual differences in the age‐related prevalences of Babesia and Trypanosoma parasites of European badgers ( Meles meles )
Author(s) -
Macdonald D. W.,
Anwar M.,
Newman C.,
Woodroffe R.,
Johnson P. J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999.tb00193.x
Subject(s) - meles , biology , babesia , badger , trypanosoma , veterinary medicine , zoology , babesiosis , ecology , virology , medicine
A total of 263 individual badgers Meles meles provided 718 blood samples which were screened for parasites. This revealed that 77.2% of individuals tested positive for Babesia missirolii at least once over 3 years, whereas 7.7% did so for Trypanosoma pestanai . However, the prevalence was highest in younger age classes, except in 1990 when it was high in most categories. There was some evidence that following a positive test for Babesia badgers were more likely to be caught again in subsequent years when compared to individuals testing negative. For Trypanosoma , although prevalence decreased from a peak of 29.2% from June onwards in 1990, we found no significant corollaries of infection. These results are discussed in the light of inter‐annual variation in weather and other factors.