Are generalist parasites being lost from their hosts?

In a recent paper, Farrell et al. (2015) investigated patterns of host-parasite co-extinctions in mammals (terrestrial carnivores and ungulates). The Authors compared the proportion of single and multi host parasites found, respectively, on vulnerable and not vulnerable hosts. These two categories were defined according to IUCN (2014) criteria. The Authors found that threatened ungulates harbor a higher proportion of single host parasites than not threatened ungulates, and interpreted this pattern as a result of a decrease in the proportion of generalist parasites in threatened hosts. Although we think that the work by Farrell et al. (2015) gives an important contribution to the field of host-parasite co-extinctions, we have various concerns about the Authors' main conclusion that the observed patterns result from a loss of generalist parasites from threatened hosts.

STRONA Giovanni;  FATTORINI Simone; 

2016-05-13

WILEY-BLACKWELL

JRC97234

0021-8790,   

http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12443/abstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC97234,   

10.1111/1365-2656.12443,