New research demonstrates the value of saving parasites and how to do it.

There is a public relations issue with parasites.

In contrast to the numerous endearing mammals, fish, and birds that command our interest and financial support for conservation, parasites are viewed as something that should be eliminated rather than preserved.

However, only 4% of known parasites can infect humans; the rest actually play important ecological roles, such as controlling species that would otherwise become invasive due to population growth. However, only around 10% of parasites are known to exist, and as a result, study and conservation efforts primarily ignore them.

That is something that a global community of scientists hopes to alter. A article outlining an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites was published in the journal Biological Conservation on August 1st by about a dozen eminent parasite ecologists, including Chelsea Wood of the University of Washington.

“The biological diversity of parasites is highly varied, but as a society, we do not value this diversity,” stated Wood, an assistant professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how, without even realizing it, we are losing parasites and the roles they play in the ecosystem.

The authors suggest 12 objectives for the following ten years that, when combined with management, campaigning, and research, could improve the conservation of Doxycycline 100mg biodiversity.

A diagram displaying the conservation plan’s twelve objectives

The conservation plan for parasites has twelve main objectives.Columbia University/Colin Carlson

“We can still take action now to conserve parasite biodiversity even though we know very little about most parasite species,” stated Skylar Hopkins, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and the co-lead of the paper and project.

To describe 50% of the world’s parasites within the next ten years is arguably the most ambitious aim. According to the researchers, giving taxonomic descriptions enables species to be named, which is a crucial step in the conservation process.

According to Colin Carlson, the other project co-lead and an assistant professor at Georgetown University, “if species don’t have a name, we can’t save them.” For many years, we have believed this to be true for the majority of animals and plants, yet scientists have only found a small portion of all the parasites on Earth. The deep sea, deep space, and the world that exists inside every creature on Earth are the final frontiers.

Crucially, the researchers emphasize that their conservation plan does not contain any parasites that affect humans or domesticated animals. They contend that controlling these parasites is necessary to protect the health of people and animals.

This study is included in a special edition that is all about the conservation of parasites. One study in the collection, led by Wood, concludes that parasite reactions to environmental change are probably complex and that both outbreaks of certain parasite species and the complete extinction of other parasite species are likely in a changing world.

frog with abnormalities

A Pacific tree frog with deformities (Pseudacris regilla). Amphibians like this frog are infected with the parasite Ribeiroia ondatrae, which can result in deformities of the limbs.Pieter Johnson from Colorado Boulder University

“We must acknowledge that different parasite taxa will respond differently from one another and not assume that every parasite is headed for extinction or a significant outbreak,” said Wood.

For parasites to finish their life cycle, two or more host species are frequently required. Certain parasites, for instance, initially infect fish or amphibians before needing to spread to birds in order to proliferate. They make sure this occurs in clever ways, according to Wood, frequently by changing the behavior or even the physical makeup of their initial host to increase the likelihood that these fish or amphibians will be consumed by birds. This is how the parasite eventually spreads to a bird, which is its final target.

Because of this dynamic, Wood and associates decided to investigate the effects of changing parasite habitats on parasite abundance. They planned an experiment spanning 16 ponds in the East Bay region of central California. To temporarily change the natural environment and increase biodiversity in these ponds, scientists placed structures including bird houses, floating perches, and mallard decoys in half of the ponds.