Trends in Parasitology
Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 April 2004, Pages 170-177
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Environmental parasitology: relevancy of parasites in monitoring environmental pollution

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2004.01.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Parasites can interact with environmental pollution in different ways. On the one hand, parasites can interfere with established bioindication procedures owing to their effects on the physiology and behaviour of the host. This could lead both to false-negative and false-positive indications of pollution. On the other hand, parasites can be used as effect indicators and as accumulation indicators because of the variety of ways in which they respond to anthropogenic pollution. Although we are just at the very beginning of an extremely important field of interdisciplinary research, the fast-growing number of papers obliges this state-of-the-art summary.

Section snippets

Parasites and biomarkers

If we look at biomarkers as a biochemical and molecular target of organisms and cells, parasites might be of importance as a factor affecting the physiological homeostasis of their hosts. Recently, it was demonstrated in exposure studies using pentachlorophenol that several physiological reactions such as the heat output or mean survival times in the freshwater clam Pisidium amnicum infected with larvae of Bunodera luciopercae was lower than in uninfected clams 15, 16. However, first reports on

Effect indication with parasites

Literature on effect indication with parasites usually focuses on the level of individual organisms, populations and communities. Concerning individual organisms, effect indication might be possible using the direct toxicity of substances on free-living parasitic stages [7]. Despite numerous parasites having free-living larval stages, most toxicological studies have been conducted using miracidia and cercariae of trematodes (for review, see Ref. [7]). In these studies, a known number of larval

Parasites as accumulation indicators

Certain organisms are able to provide information about the chemical state of their environment through their presence or absence. Others are less affected by toxic substances, but show an ability to concentrate environmental pollutants inside their tissues [11]. Thus far, studies have mainly focused on the use of parasites as accumulation indicators of heavy metals; less frequently, investigations have dealt with organic pollutants. This is obviously related to different accumulation patterns

Metal accumulation in parasites of terrestrial habitats

In contrast to investigations on parasites in aquatic habitats, less information is available on parasites of animals living in terrestrial habitats (Table 2). But again, this is a general trend, as even ecologists have mentioned that there is an urgent need for sentinels in terrestrial, and especially urban, systems. Studies have been conducted on parasites of mammals, such as rats 51, 57, 58, 59, pigs 48, 52, 56 and cattle [52], as well as on parasites of birds 50, 54. Several reports on

Do we need new sentinels?

Although there are good arguments to establish parasites as sentinels, ecologists prefer to use animals such as mussels, crustaceans and fish for indication purposes [11] because they are familiar with these organisms. By contrast, one might ask why we need new and even more sensitive accumulation indicators than the established ones. By using acanthocephalans in environmental impact studies, very low concentrations of metals can be detected in the environment owing to the enormous accumulation

Conclusion

It is clear that we are still lacking considerable amounts of information on: (i) the effects of parasites on common bioindication procedures such as the analysis of biomarkers; and (ii) the use of parasites as indicators. We need much more knowledge about the basic physiological effects that parasites have on their hosts at the time of infection, development and reproduction. If we understand these basic processes, ecotoxicological research could benefit from this (e.g. with respect to

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