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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP10.2: Wildlife 2: Mammals, Birds, Lizards & Wetas 5 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 3
Session Chair: Haylee Crawford-Weaver, DCCEEW
Session Chair: Nicholas Fountain-Jones, University of Tasmania

Presentation 2

Sarcocystidae parasites in Australian invasive mammals: insights from DNA sequencing

Keira Brown¹, Anthony R. Rendall², Diane P. Barton¹, Shokoofeh Shamsi¹

1: School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Australia; 2: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science Engineering and the Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Burwood Campus, Victoria, Australia

Australia is home to a diverse array of invasive mammals, including pigs, deer, cats, foxes, and rabbits. Although these five species have been reported as hosts to protozoan parasites of the family Sarcocystidae in their native ranges, there has been little investigation into the parasite load of these invasive species in Australia. This study aims to fill in some of this gap by studying species from 3 genera within the Sarcocystidae in selected invasive mammalian hosts. Tissues were collected through opportunistic sampling of deceased invasive mammal species around south-eastern Australia and underwent molecular analysis through PCR and DNA sequencing. This has resulted in species from the genera Toxoplasma and Sarcocystis being identified in invasive mammals. From these identifications a better understanding of the indirect impact invasive animal hosts may be having on an environment through the transmission of parasites through ecosystems, can be drawn. This includes possible spillover into native wildlife hosts which may affect efforts for conservation and relocations. As well as this, spillover into domestic hosts, such as in farming, can affect yields, profits, and risk human health, or represent a risk to household pets.