Dipylidium sp.

This is the fourth post in a series of blog posts written by students from my third year Evolutionary Parasitology unit (ZOOL329/529) class of 2015. This particular post was written by Courtney Hawkins and it is about hyena poop and tapeworms (you can read the previous post about monarchs, milkweeds, and parasite here).

I think we can all agree that parasitologists don’t always have the most glamorous jobs in the world. But how about combing through hyena faeces for nine years looking for intestinal parasites? It may not be your dream job but it is for five German scientists. Let me explain…

Photo of spotted hyenas from Fig. 1 of this paper

Dipylidium caninum is an intestinal parasite often found in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus). This parasite is believed to also infect wild carnivores in both the Canidae and Hyaenidae families. The lifecycle of D. caninum, or canine tapeworm, begins as an adult who sheds segments of its body called proglottids, filled with packets of egg and are excreted with the faeces of the hyenas. Fleas act as the main intermediate host and ingest these eggs during their larval stage. The eggs then hatch and migrate into the body cavity of the flea. The parasite larvae begin developing when the adult fleas emerge from their cocoons and encounter a mammalian host. These mammalian hosts are then infected by consuming the fleas during grooming and the life cycle begins again.

Photo of Dipylidium egg capsule and proglottids in hyena faeces from
Fig. 1 of this paper

The spotted hyena is infected with an unknown species of Dipylidium, neither its genetic identity nor the factors influencing infection are known. This study aimed to provide the first genetic data for this species infecting hyena hosts in East Africa, and to investigate the ecology, demographic, behavioural and physiological factors that influence this species to infect this social carnivore.

Much like D. caninum, it is assumed that the intermediate host is a flea and is most likely the ‘stick fast flea’ (Echidnophaga larina) which is often found on spotted hyenas. Spotted hyenas are social carnivores that often share a communal den inside the clan’s territory with both sexes visiting to socialise and scent mark. It is here that provides the perfect microenvironment for the intermediate host population due to its low temperature, low light and relative humidity.

This study was conducted from 2003 – 2012 on three large clans with the mean population being 89 animals. In total, 146 faecal samples were collected from 124 individuals between the ages of 48 days to about twelve years old. Thirteen of those animals were sampled when they were juveniles and again when they reached adulthoods. Now there are some pretty complicated statistical and genetics analysis taking place and if you are interested feel free to read the journal article (which is Open Access). But here are the major findings:

Adults were less infected than juveniles. This is possibly because as a hyena ages, it acquires immunity from Dipylidium. It was also discovered that the chance of infection decreased the more pups are in the den, because with more pups to go around, there are fewer fleas on each pup, and therefore they also have lower chances of ingesting an infected one. But the chances of infection increases as the total number of adults and older juveniles visiting the den rises and this is because of the increase in possible hosts for the fleas.

It can be seen from this study that host age and denning behaviour are important factors that influence the abundance of Dipylidium infections in wild carnivores. However more genetic information is required to clarify whether this hyena tapeworm is D. caninum or a related, but different, species.

Who knew a little bit of faecal matter could tell us so much!

This post was written by Courtney Hawkins

References:
East, M., Kruze, C., Wilhelm, K., Benhaiem, S. & Hofer, H. (2013). Factors influencing Dipylidium sp. infection in a free-ranging social carnivore, the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta). International Journal of Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 2: 257-265.