Published in:
01-06-2020 | Climate Change | Short Communication
How climate change affects parasites: the case of trematode parasite Clinostomum complanatum and its fish host Trichogaster fasiatus
Authors:
Asim Rizvi, Rohit Chaudhary, Minza Haider, Imrana Naseem
Published in:
Journal of Parasitic Diseases
|
Issue 2/2020
Login to get access
Abstract
This study was undertaken to understand the impact of climate change on the ecology of infection of Clinostomum complanatum, a model trematode parasite. We analysed climate change data and data from infected fish over a period of seven years (2007–2013) from the Aligarh region (India) in this retrospective study. We show that infection of the trematode parasite Clinostomum complanatum (Rudolphi, 1814) in the forage fish Trichogaster facsiatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) is dependent on surface air temperature amongst the (ecologically) relevant climate change variables for both the parasite and its host. This study is the first to implicate surface air temperature as an environmental variable that may contribute towards parasitism, particularly for parasites with a piscine host. The biological relevance of changing climate on the ecology of this parasite is discussed.