Toxocara cati abundance

Virta, Miisa, Huitu, Otso, Heikkinen, Juha, Holmala, Katja & Jokelainen, Pikka, 2022, High Toxocara cati prevalence in wild, free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Finland, 1999 - 2015, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 17, pp. 205-210 : 207

3.2. Toxocara cati abundance and intensity

The mean T. cati abundance was 18.0 (standard deviation = 25.5), and the mean T. cati intensity was 21.2 (standard deviation = 26.0) ( Table 1). The parameter k for parasite aggregation was 0.513 indicating highly aggregated parasite distribution.

There was a significant negative association between age of the lynx and T. cati abundance (Coef. = — 0.191, p <0.001, SE = 0.028, df = 1, F = 45.80). The worm abundance was significantly lower amongst older lynx. Lynx density did not have a significant effect on worm abundance (p = 0.434). The variance of the random effect for the years was different from zero, indicating the years were different in regards to T. cati abundance.

Age squared and T. cati abundance were significantly positively associated (Coef. = 0.008, p = 0.011, SE = 0.003, df = 1, F = 17.71). There was an interaction with T. cati abundance, age squared, and sex (p = 0.009, SE = 0.003, df = 1, F = 11.13). Females aged 9–15 years had a significant positive relationship with T. cati abundance (Coef. = 1.298, p <0.001, SE = 0.374, df = 5, F = 3.53), while the abundance was not related to age in males. Among the total of 67 lynx aged 9–15 years, the mean abundance was 26.0 (range 0–162) in the 40 females and 7.5 (range 0–42) in the 27 males ( Fig. 3 ).

There was a positive relationship between T. cati abundance and presence of cestodes, indicating a higher probability of co-infection when T. cati abundance was higher (Coef. = 0.377, p <0.001, SE = 0.067, F = 31.93).

Figures

Fig. 3. Number of Toxocara cati worms in Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Finland, by age and sex. Median, first and third quartiles, and minimum and maximum are shown.