What herbivores eat shapes their gut worm communities
Abraham JO, Leventis R, Titcomb G, Dobson A, Moeller AH
Ethnobotany
The diverse leaves and grasses grazing animals choose to eat directly influence which gut parasites thrive in them, showing how plant diversity in a landscape ripples into animal health far beyond the garden fence.
Researchers looked at 17 different plant-eating animals in Africa, from antelope to zebras, and tracked the worms living in their guts, the bacteria in their microbiomes, and what plants they were eating. They found that animals with richer, more varied diets tended to host more disease-causing bacteria, which in turn was linked to having more gut worms. It's a reminder that an animal's diet and its gut community are deeply tangled together, not separate systems.
Key Findings
Host phylogeny and gut microbiome composition were the two strongest predictors of nematode community structure across 17 African herbivore species.
Nematode abundance correlated positively with richness of potentially pathogenic gut bacteria, which itself increased with diet plant richness.
Body size did not significantly predict nematode communities, while physical proximity between hosts and diet composition had smaller but measurable effects.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists studying wild African plant-eaters like zebras and antelope found that what an animal eats and which gut microbes it carries shape which worms live in its intestines, even more than the animal's evolutionary family tree alone.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Host phylogeny and microbiome composition predict gut nematode community composition within a diverse assemblage of African herbivores.
Gut nematodes influence animal health and fitness, with effects shaped by their abundance and community composition. While closely related host species tend to harbour similar nematodes, the relati...
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