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A comparison of the structure of helminth communities in the woodmouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, on islands of the western Mediterranean and continental Europe

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Abstract

We investigated the pattern of helminth species diversity in woodmouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, on western Mediterranean islands. We first performed a survey of the helminth fauna of A. sylvaticus in Sicily. Despite the small sampling effort, parasite species richness in Sicily is large in comparison with parasite species richness on other Mediterranean islands. We tested the nestedness of helminth parasite species from a number of Mediterranean localities using data compiled from epidemiological surveys of the helminth species of A. sylvaticus. We showed a nested pattern for woodmouse helminth species on western Mediterranean islands which suggests that the distribution of parasites on these islands is not the result of a random process. Properties of helminth parasites such as taxonomic group or life cycle and properties of the host population localities such as area size or the stability of the environment (estimated by mammal species diversity) contribute to the nestedness.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Commissionat per Universitat i Recerca (2001 SGR 00088) of the Government of Catalonia (Spain) and by the Institut Français de la Biodiversité. J. Goüy de Bellocq was supported by a Ministère de la Recherche et de la Technologie fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Biologie Animale (UMR 5555 CNRS), Centre de Biologie et d'Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne, Université de Perpignan, 66860, Perpignan Cedex, France

    Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq

  2. CBGP, Campus international de Baillarguet, 34988, Montferrier sur Leg Cedex, France

    Serge Morand

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Via Archirafi 18, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Maurizio Sarà

  4. Laboratori de Parasitologia, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Avda. Diagonal, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Juan Carlos Casanova & Carlos Feliu

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  1. Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq
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  2. Maurizio Sarà
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  3. Juan Carlos Casanova
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  4. Carlos Feliu
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  5. Serge Morand
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Correspondence to Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq.

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Goüy de Bellocq, J., Sarà, M., Casanova, J.C. et al. A comparison of the structure of helminth communities in the woodmouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, on islands of the western Mediterranean and continental Europe. Parasitol Res 90, 64–70 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-002-0806-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-002-0806-1

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