The effects of seasonality and group size on fecal egg counts in wild Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii , Poljakov, 1881) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine during 2014 – 2018
, , and | Nov 19, 2020
About this article
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Nov 19, 2020
Page range: 314 - 321
Received: Oct 22, 2019
Accepted: May 25, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2020-0042
Keywords
© 2020 K. Slivinska, D. Klich, N. Yasynetska, M. Żygowska, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Egg counts of the gastrointestinal parasites of wild Przewalski’s horses in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone between April 2014 to September 2018. (EPG – eggs per gram of feces; EI – prevalence of infections; FEC – mean fecal egg counts, SD – standard deviation)
| Year | Group type (n = number of horses) | No. of feces samples | Strongylidae | Parascaris spp |
Habronematidae | Anoplocephalidae | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EI, % | FEC, EPG | ±SD | EI, % | FEC, EPG | ±SD | EI, % | FEC, EPG | ±SD | EI, % | FEC, EPG | ±SD | |||
| 2014 | Harem (5) | 5 | 100 | 470 | 258.2 | - | - | - | 60 | 41.7 | 29.9 | |||
| Harem (8) | 8 | 100 | 925 | 512.3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2015 | Harem (15) | 3 | 100 | 158.3 | 52 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Harem (4) | 3 | 66.7 | 25 | 14.4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Harem (5) | 2 | 100 | 37.5 | 17.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Harem (7) | 6 | 100 | 125 | 52.4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Harem (11) | 3 | 66.7 | 187.5 | 175 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Bachelors (8) | 8 | 100 | 33.4 | 166.9 | - | - | 12.5 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 11.6 | |||
| Unknown | 27 | 88.9 | 117.1 | 142.1 | 11.1 | 191.7 | 76.2 | - | - | 7.4 | 25 | 6.7 | ||
| 2016 | Harem (12) | 7 | 100 | 660.7 | 677.4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Harem (3) | 3 | 100 | 300 | 201 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Bachelors (5) | 4 | 100 | 487.5 | 512.6 | 25 | 25 | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Unknown | 1 | 100 | 250 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| 2017 | Harem (8) | 4 | 100 | 718.8 | 451 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Harem (14) | 11 | 100 | 788.6 | 377.9 | - | - | - | - | 9.1 | 25 | ||||
| Harem (3) | 3 | 100 | 250 | 106.1 | 33.3 | 25 | - | - | 66.6 | 25 | ||||
| Bachelors (11) | 11 | 100 | 479.5 | 237.4 | 18.2 | 112.5 | 123.7 | - | - | 9.1 | 25 | |||
| Unknown | 1 | 100 | 600 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| 2018 | Harem (3) | 2 | 100 | 250 | 70.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Harem (9) | 2 | 100 | 112.5 | 17.7 | 50 | 25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Bachelors (6) | 4 | 100 | 193.8 | 104.8 | 25 | 25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
Effects season, age and group size on the egg counts of strongylids in feces of Przewalski’s horses (χ2=56.06; df=4; p=0.000, N=110). Non-significant sex and year of sample collection were excluded by AIC backward elimination procedure.
| Source | Wald |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Intercept* | 961.1 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Season* | 52.58 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Group size* | 4.03 | 1 | 0.045 |
| Age | 1.65 | 2 | 0.439 |