The population dynamical implications of male-biased parasitism in different mating systems

Although there is growing evidence that males tend to suffer higher levels of parasitism than females, the implications of this for the population dynamics of the host population are not yet understood. Here we build on an established 'two-sex' model and investigate how increased susceptib...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2007-07, Vol.2 (7), p.e624-e624
Main Authors: Miller, Martin R, White, Andrew, Wilson, Kenneth, Boots, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal behavior
Animal reproduction
Animals
Demography
Disease
Disease susceptibility
Drosophila
Ecology
Ecology/Theoretical Ecology
Encephalitis
Female
Females
Gender differences
Health aspects
Host-Parasite Interactions
Humans
Immunology
Immunology/Immunity to Infections
Infection
Infections
Infectious Diseases/Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases
Insects
Male
Males
Marriage
Mating
Mortality
Parasites
Parasitic Diseases - epidemiology
Parasitic Diseases - immunology
Parasitic Diseases - transmission
Parasitism
Pathogens
Plant sciences
Plasmodium chabaudi
Population
Population biology
Population Density
Population Dynamics
Sex Characteristics
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Trends
Virulence
Virulence (Microbiology)
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Summary:Although there is growing evidence that males tend to suffer higher levels of parasitism than females, the implications of this for the population dynamics of the host population are not yet understood. Here we build on an established 'two-sex' model and investigate how increased susceptibility to infection in males affects the dynamics, under different mating systems. We investigate the effect of pathogenic disease at different case mortalities, under both monogamous and polygynous mating systems. If the case mortality is low, then male-biased parasitism appears similar to unbiased parasitism in terms of its effect on the population dynamics. At higher case mortalities, we identified significant differences between male-biased and unbiased parasitism. A host population may therefore be differentially affected by male-biased and unbiased parasitism. The dynamical outcome is likely to depend on a complex interaction between the host's mating system and demography, and the parasite virulence.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0000624