Human Impact on the Composition of Small Intestinal Helminth Infracommunities in Canine Mesocarnivores with a Special Focus on Echinococcus multilocularis

Estimating human impact on parasites in wildlife is essential to create efficient strategies to control diseases and improve public health. This study assessed the human influence on the parasite burden of the two commonest canine mesocarnivores, the red fox (N=194) and the golden jackal (N=151), in Europe. We compared the infracommunity crowding index, parasite diversity, prevalence, and abundance of different parasite taxa, and the presence of Echinococcus multilocularis between groups of hosts, such as jackals and foxes hunted at different distances from human settlements. The analysis of hosts’ distribution ascertained that 61.2% of the investigated wild canids were hunted in a 500-1750 m ring around the human settlements. Ancylostomatidae proved the most prevalent taxon (>60%), while Echinococcus multilocularis and Dipylidium caninum occurred least frequently. The two taxa that mostly contributed to the crowding of infracommunities were Ancylostomatidae and Toxocaridae, with a negative correlation between their abundances (Spearmann's ρ=-0.445, p< 0.001). Echinococcus multilocularis infected parasite infracommunities were more crowded in both foxes (p=0.02) and jackals (p=0.001). Our study highlighted that human modification of landscapes worsened the parasite burden of wild mesocarnivores, which could increase the public health risk of zoonotic parasites.