Parasites of Oryx gazella in the South Africa

REPORT ON EXPEDITION/PROJECT/CONFERENCE Expedition/Project/Conference Title: Parasites of Oryx gazella gazella in the Klein Karoo .......................................... Travel Dates: 4th July – 25th July 2004............................................................................................................................... Location: Sanbona Wildlife Reserve (S33o 43’ E20o 36’), Western Cape, R.S.A ............................................................. ............................................................................................................................... Aims: To document, and quantify where possible, the parasites of Oryx gazella gazella in the Klein Karoo within the Western Cape of the Republic of South Africa..................................................................................................................... Introduction This research was carried out at the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, in the Western Cape of the Republic of South Africa approximately 200km east of Cape Town. The reserve is composed of Montagu Shale rhenosterveld, transitional area North Langeberg sandstone fynbos and western little (klein) karoo. The Warmwaterberg mountain range runs roughly east-west (Figure 1) through the middle of the reserve effectively cutting it in two. This leads to a variation in climate and vegetation in the north and south. Figure 1: Satellite view of Sanbona reserve (marked in yellow) showing the Warmwaterberg division and the locations of the culls. Gemsbok marked in white, duiker in black Gemsbok are a large antelope of the Hippotragini tribe, along with the seven surviving species in genera Oryx, Addax and Hippotragus. Members of this tribe are typically large, stocky animals with large, ridged horns, and within the Oryx genus these horns are straight. Members of the Oryx genus live throughout Africa in semi-desert and desert areas (Figure 2), but the gemsbok is found mainly in the south in areas with rainfall between 200-600mm annual rainfall (Ellis M, 2004) Aims There are few data regarding recorded parasitic species and distribution for this particular species (Table 1) and the primary aim of this expedition was to provide fresh data on parasitic species and typical burdens. This would include tick and other ectoparasite collection, helminth adults and faecal egg counts and pasture contamination levels. Figure 2: Distribution of Oryx spp. in Africa (left), and distribution of Oryx gazella gazella in southern Africa in relation to annual precipitation. Rainfall data from Swap R. J. et al (2003) Parasite Species Eimeria oryxae Mycobacterium tuberculosis Agriostomum equidentatum Coernus cyst Haemonchus contortus Nematodirus spathiger Nematodirus spp Teladorsagia hamata Trichostrongylus Looss Camelostrongylus spp Haemonchus spp Sarcoptes scabiei Toxoplasma gondii Trichostrongylus spp Trichuris spp Table 1: Recorded parasites of Oryx spp. from around the world Host Species Location Reference O. dammah Saudi Arabia Alyousif M. S., et al. (2002) O. g. beisa Jackson (MS. N.Am) Lomme J. R., et al. (1976) O. g. gazella Kalahari-Gemsbok NP Boomker J., et al.(1986) O. g. gazella Windhoek Bohrmann R. (1990) O. g. gazella Kalahari-Gemsbok NP Boomker J., et al.(1986) O. g. gazella West Coast NP Boomker J., et al.(2000) O. g. gazella New Mexico Bender L. C., et al. (2003) O. g. gazella W. S.Af. Boomker J., et al. (2003) O. g. gazella Kalahari-Gemsbok NP Boomker J., et al.(1986) O. leucoryx Antwerp Goossens E. [17.02.2004] O. leucoryx --FDA (1990) O. g. callotis O. leucoryx Israel Yeruham I, et al. (1996) O. leucoryx Saudi Arabia Mohammed O.B., et al. (1994) O. leucoryx Antwerp Goossens E. [17.02.2004], FDA (1990) O. leucoryx Antwerp Goossens E. [17.02.2004], FDA (1990) Methodology As Moredun Research Institute standard operating procedures. Results Overall a lot of data was collected, and some of this is still being analysed. However the bulk has been collated and is shown and discussed below. Table 2: Summary of culled individuals Animal A B C D E F G Species O. g. gazella O. g. gazella O. g. gazella S. grimmia S. grimmia S. grimmia O. g. gazella Sex f f f m m f m Age (yrs) 6 6 4 1 1 3 8 Weight (kg) 170 140 120 17 20 30 180 Cull Date 09.07.04 12.07.04 16.07.04 20.07.04 20.07.04 20.07.04 21.07.04 Location S33 51.190 E20 33.069 S33 44.406 E20 34.160 S33 50.073 E20 36.519 S33 40.422 E20 41.868 S33 39.896 E20 44.334 S33 41.308 E20 38.449 S33 44.965 E20 39.791 Helminths Table 3: Helminth species found in the abomasum, shown as total worms per animal Animal H. contortus O. ostertagi T. rugatus A 10 - 70 B - - 30 C 20 50 - Table 4: Helminth species found in the ileum, shown as total worms per animal Animal Agriostomum Cooperia sp. - H. contortus - N. spathiger 30 O. ostertagi - T. rugatus A 50 20 B - - - - - - C - 50 50 120 40 80 Table 5: Helminth species found in the duodenum, shown as total worms per animal Animal Agriostomum - A B - C >1000 Unfortunately I was unable to recover any male Cooperia sp. and so it was not possible to identify to species level. It was possible to collect cysticercae from the mesenteries of animals C (gemsbok) and F (duiker), at time of publication these are still under analysis. Ticks Due to time constraints I was only able to obtain qualitative data (Table 7). However Rh. gertrudae was by far the most commonly encountered and widely distributed of the species found. Table 6: Tick species and location recovered from animal s. Species Location Ixodes rubicundus Anus, Back, Belly, Feet, Flank, Legs Rh. (Boophilus) decoloratus Back, Belly, Ear Feet, Legs Rhipicephalus gertrudae Anus, Belly, Ear, Flanks, Feet, Legs, Neck, Tail Rhipicephalus glabroscutatum Feet It should also be noted that although there is no quantitative data to support it, it was noted that animals with heavy parasite loads were usually infested with concurrently high tick and helminth burdens. Pasture Samples Table 7: Data from site of each animal cull. Animals D-F were collected at night and so pasture sampling was not possible. Units per Kg herbage. Site Eggs A B 292.9 C 226.2 G 1507.9 1159.5 These data show a clear divide between the north and south of the reserve, with the north having pasture contamination more than five times higher than the south. This is unexpected as the population is higher in the south due to greater access to water and herbage. However until recently the reserve was subdivided into many farms with the north being predominantly pasture and the south being set aside for orchards, and so it is possible that the extra egg contamination may be due to previous livestock contamination. Duiker haematoprotozoa Figure 3: Haematoprotozoa recovered from duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia) blood films in Sanbona Wildlife reserve. Measure bar = 5µm It has not been possible to identify these as all samples are fixed smears (Figure 3) and DNA extraction is no longer an option. However it was possible to measure a subset with similar morphology to specimen C (Table 9). Table 8: Measurements (in µm) of various parameters (Penzhorn 1996) of the haematoprotozoa of type C found in the blood smear of three duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia) from Sanbona Wildlife reserve (n=25) Body length mean 8.41 max 10.00 min 6.00 variance 2.14 SD 1.46 Body breadth 2.73 4.00 1.50 0.47 0.68 Flagellum length 9.76 13.00 6.00 6.57 2.56 Kinetoplast length Distance from anterior end of body to kinetoplast 0.90 2.00 0.50 0.24 0.49 0.16 0.75 0.00 0.06 0.25 As these smears were taken at night and promptly after death I do not believe these are from infected arthropods feeding on the carcass, rather these are in fact a duiker parasite. It is worth noting that none of the culled duiker had any attached ectoparasitic arthropods. Discussion There is still a lot of data left to analyse from this expedition, including identifying the cysticercae with the help of Dr M. Blaxter and Dr T. Littlewood, identifying the Cooperia and unknown duiker helminth species and identifying the haematoprotozoa. Agriostomum equidentatum has previously been recorded in gemsbok and kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) in the Kruger National Park (Boomker et al. 1986, 1989), as well as springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) in the Western Cape (Horak 1982), so this confirms predictions that it should be present in gemsbok in this area. I can confirm the presence of H. contortus (Boomker 1986), N. spathiger (Boomker 2000) in gemsbok and add the klein karoo to their distribution. However O. ostertagi and T. rugatus appear to be a new parasite relationship. Unlike previous studies (Horak 1998), I found that R. glabroscutatum was quite rare, but in accordance with MacIvor (1985) was very selective about feeding sites, being found only between the hooves, and in relatively small numbers. 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