About this Research Topic

Background

Livestock and wildlife parasites have profound effects on host populations and behavior. Parasitic diseases may restrict the ranges of host species, threaten the persistence of protected species, and alter trophic interactions, impeding conservation efforts. Parasites are also major constraints to livestock production. As pressure for shared resources grow, bringing wildlife, humans and their livestock into closer and more frequent contact, there is increasingly a need to adopt a broader, multidimensional approach to veterinary parasitology research. There is mounting evidence that wildlife-livestock interactions moderate parasite transmission, the epidemiology of parasitic disease, and the efficacy of parasite control programmes. Furthermore, as the development and survival of many parasites are intimately linked with the environment, climate change may alter environmental suitability for these species, affecting their abundance and seasonal population dynamics. Climate change may also alter the behavior and distributions of host species, impacting on host-parasite interactions and affecting transmission dynamics.

The aim of this Research Topic is to explore parasite transmission at the livestock-wildlife interface, worldwide. There will be a particular emphasis on transmission dynamics in mixed host-species communities, and how climate alters these dynamics. This topic will highlight the “One Health” concept as applied to wildlife and livestock, and promote a unifying, ecological approach to veterinary parasitology.

To date, significant resources have been devoted to developing knowledge, tools and parasite control strategies to optimise livestock productivity for the benefit of mankind and to improve animal health and welfare. Many of these studies treat livestock farming systems as “monocultures”, largely with single species parasitic infections, yet livestock exist within the wider ecological community, which includes sympatric wildlife and coinfection.

By taking a broader and multidimensional approach to veterinary parasitology we may identify new opportunities for interventions to reduce parasitism, or conversely, coexistence of livestock and wildlife for mutual benefit, with potential to enhance access to ecosystem services and improve livelihoods. Understanding how wildlife and livestock interact, host-parasite networks, and how these systems exist within the wider environment could deliver benefits for sustainable control of endemic parasites, optimal livestock production, invasive parasite control, and conservation.

Original Research Articles, Reviews, and Perspective Articles which align with the Research Topic title, with an emphasis on climatic influences and climate change are welcome. Study systems can include any in which wildlife and semi-domesticated or domesticated livestock coexist either with direct or indirect (e.g. by shared environment use) contact, offering a route to transmission. Parasitism will be considered in its broadest sense, including protozoa and metazoa. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Direct effects of climate change on parasite life cycles, phenology and epidemiology
• Climate-driven changes in host behavior which impact transmission (e.g. altered host migration patterns)
• Consequences of climate for livestock management which impact transmission (e.g. transhumance)
• Parasites and human-wildlife conflict/coexistence in a changing climate
• Characterising host-parasite-environment interactions that are vulnerable to climate impacts

Topic Editor Josephine Walker is a co-investigator on a research grant funded by Gilead Sciences. The other Topic Editors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Keywords: climate, parasite, livestock, wildlife

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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