ArticlePloS one2015
Seasonal patterns of hormones, macroparasites, and microparasites in wild African ungulates: the interplay among stress, reproduction, and disease.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Corticosterone Under Experimental Manipulation of Nutrition and Parasite Burden in a Wild Rodent System.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Article
- Characterization of serum follicle stimulating hormone, growth hormone, leptin, luteinizing hormone, and prolactin in female polar bears (Ursus maritimus) via multiplex immunoassay.Journal of animal science · 2026Article
- Epidemiology and risk factors for endoparasite infection in subtropical feral cattle in Hong Kong.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2025Article
- Interactions between host sex and seasonal changes shape the gut microbial communities of wild blue sheep (Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Stress, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, and aggression.Metabolic brain disease · 2024Review
- Patterns of gastrointestinal parasite infections in bighorn sheep,International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
- Exploring the influence of stress on aggressive behavior and sexual function: Role of neuromodulator pathways and epigenetics.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Season of death, pathogen persistence and wildlife behaviour alter number of anthrax secondary infections from environmental reservoirs.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Macro-parasites and micro-parasites co-exist in rodent communities but are associated with different community-level parameters.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Variation of hair cortisol in two herds of migratory caribou (Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Seasonal variation in molecular and physiological stress markers in Asian elephants.Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Experimental reduction of haemosporidian infection affects maternal reproductive investment, parental behaviour and offspring condition.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Long-term temporal trends in gastrointestinal parasite infection in wild Soay sheep.Parasitology · 2022Article
- Participatory mapping identifies risk areas and environmental predictors of endemic anthrax in rural Africa.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Immunological Evidence of Variation in Exposure and Immune Response toFrontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Conservation physiology · 2022Article
- Applying Behavioral and Physiological Measures to Assess the Relative Impact of the Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic Closure on Two Mammal Species at the Oregon Zoo: Cheetah (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Water sources aggregate parasites with increasing effects in more arid conditions.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Life in the margins: host-parasite relationships in ecological edges.Parasitology research · 2021Review
- Disease or drought: environmental fluctuations release zebra from a potential pathogen-triggered ecological trap.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sex hormones, reproductive status, and pathogen load all affect stress. Together with stress, these factors can modulate the immune system and affect disease incidence. Thus, it is important to concurrently measure these factors, along with their seasonal fluctuations, to better understand their complex interactions. Using steroid hormone metabolites from fecal samples, we examined seasonal correlations among zebra and springbok stress, reproduction, gastrointestinal (GI) parasite infections, and anthrax infection signatures in zebra and springbok in Etosha National Park (ENP), Namibia, and found strong seasonal effects. Infection intensities of all three GI macroparasites examined (strongyle helminths, Strongyloides helminths, and Eimeria coccidia) were highest in the wet season, concurrent with the timing of anthrax outbreaks. Parasites also declined with increased acquired immune responses. We found hormonal evidence that both mares and ewes are overwhelmingly seasonal breeders in ENP, and that reproductive hormones are correlated with immunosuppression and higher susceptibility to GI parasite infections. Stress hormones largely peak in the dry season, particularly in zebra, when parasite infection intensities are lowest, and are most strongly correlated with host mid-gestation rather than with parasite infection intensity. Given the evidence that GI parasites can cause host pathology, immunomodulation, and immunosuppression, their persistence in ENP hosts without inducing chronic stress responses supports the hypothesis that hosts are tolerant of their parasites. Such tolerance would help to explain the ubiquity of these organisms in ENP herbivores, even in the face of their potential immunomodulatory trade-offs with anti-anthrax immunity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.