| The wild population of forest musk deer can not meet the needs of musk,so get the musk from captive population using non-invasive method becoming the main source of musk,and the captive population also have the responsibility to provide provenances for future reintroduction.However,the captive population has been plagued by unstable health condition and high incidence of diseases for a long time.Parasitic infections and frequent gastrointestinal diseases were considered the key factors to affect the health of musk deer,which restrict the development of captive population.Parasite infections caused adverse effects on health,survival and welfare of forest musk deer,and the association with metabolism was still unclear.Meanwhile,gastrointestinal diseases were closely related with gut microbiota,studies on it were urgent to carry out.Nevertheless,there are few quantitative studies regarding forest musk deer parasites,and there is no common preservation method or floatation solution used for detection of faecal parasites because of the biology of the worms and the host physiological state.The objective of this study was to evaluate the preservation and floatation for the detection of nematode eggs and coccidian oocysts in faeces of the forest musk deer.The McMaster technique was used to count nematode eggs and coccidian oocysts in 33 samples of faeces.For the nematode eggs,the differences among floatation solutions were significant(p<0.01),with sodium nitrate being the best floatation solution,and the combination of freezing and sodium nitrate resulted in the greatest number of eggs per gram(EPG=209.4±67.8).For the coccidian oocysts,the interaction between preservation method and floatation solution was significant(p<0.01),and the combination of formalin and sodium chloride yielded the greatest number of oocysts per gram(OPG=1010.7±162.3).The forest musk deer had a high prevalence of parasitic infections,with the parasite load of coccidia(96.4%)significantly greater than that of nematodes(71.9%,p<0.01).These results confirm that captive forest musk deer suffer from serious parasitic invasions and,demonstrate that the novel method described here could be utilized for parasitological diagnosis,detection,and prevention in moschidae and cervidae species.However,few studies have quantified the parasite infection status and evaluated the parasite temporal dynamics and differences between breeding centers for captive forest musk deer.The purpose of this study was to assess seasonal and regional effects on the parasite prevalence,shedding capacity,diversity,aggregation and infracommunity to establish baseline data on captive forest musk deer.The McMaster technique was applied to count parasite eggs or oocysts in 990 fecal samples collected at three breeding centers located in Qinling Mountains and Tibetan Plateau during spring,summer,and winter.Five gastrointestinal parasite groups were found in musk deer,and Eimeria spp.were dominant(oocysts per gram=1273.7±256.3).A positive correlation between Eimeria spp.and Strongyloides spp.(r=0.336,P<0.001)based on shedding capacity data was found,as well as a negative correlation between Eimeria spp.and Moniezia spp.(r＝-0.375,P＝0.003).Both seasonal and regional differences in diversity,shedding capacity,aggregation and infracommunity were observed,but the regional effects on prevalence were only found for Trichuris spp..The low level of aggregation and high shedding capacity of Eimeria spp.and Strongyloides spp.might reflect the contaminated environment,and indicate that host-parasite relationships are unstable.The high degree of aggregation of Trichuris spp.,Ascaris spp.,and Moniezia spp.also suggests that some individual hosts had less ability to resist pathogens and greater transmission potential than others.These conclusions suggest that a focus on disease control strategies could improve the health of forest musk deer in captivity.The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of gender,altitude and aging on fecal triiodothyronine levels in captive forest musk deer,and explore the age-intensity model of gastrointestinal parasites.Furthermore,the association pattern between fecal triiodothyronine levels and parasite egg shedding was also analysed.We collected musk deer fecal samples from low altitude and high altitude breeding centers.The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was utilized to estimate the concentrations and profiles of fecal triiodothyronine,and the McMaster technique was applied to count parasite eggs or oocysts.Female deer from both breeding centers consistently showed higher triiodothyronine concentrations than that observed in males,indicated males and females showed distinct metabolic physiology.However,musk deer from high altitude breeding center showed a significantly higher triiodothyronine concentration than low altitude individuals for both genders,which might have been due to different environmental temperature resulting from different altitude.In addition,the fecal triiodothyronine concentrations and profiles showed significantly age-related differences and a negative relationship between triiodothyronine concentrations and age.A linearly negative relationship between parasite egg shedding and age was found,which a more developed immune system in elder animals.Finally,a positive association pattern between parasite egg shedding and triiodothyronine levels was found,which could be explained by the extra energy metabolism resulting from parasite infection.Results from this study might suggest a metabolic and immune adaptation in forest musk deer,and the baseline data could be used to unveil metabolic status and establish parasite control strategies,which has great potential in captive population management as well as health condition evaluations.The gut ecosystem is characterized by dynamic and reciprocal interactions between the host and bacteria.Although characterizing microbiota for herbivores has become recognized as important tool for gauging species health,no study to date has investigated the bacterial communities and evaluated the age-related bacterial dynamics of musk deer.Moreover,gastrointestinal diseases have been hypothesized to be a limiting factor of population growth in captive musk deer.Here,high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was used to profile the fecal bacterial communities in juvenile and adult alpine and forest musk deer.The two musk deer species harbored similar bacterial communities at the phylum level,whereas the key genera for the two species were distinct.The bacterial communities were dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes,with the bacterial diversity being higher in forest musk deer.The Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio also increased from juvenile to adult,while the bacterial diversity,within-group and between-group similarity,all increased with age.This work serves as the first sequence-based analysis of variation in bacterial communities within and between musk deer species,and demonstrates how the gut microbial community dynamics vary among closely related species and shift with age.As gastrointestinal diseases have been observed in captive populations,this study provides valuable data that might benefit captive management and future reintroduction programs. |
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