Parasite competition hidden by correlated coinfection: using surveys and experiments to understand parasite interactions

Within most free-living species exists a cryptic community of interacting parasites. By combining multiscale field data with manipulative experiments, we evaluated patterns of parasite coinfection in amphibian hosts and their underlying mechanisms. Surveys of 86 wetlands and 1273 hosts revealed positive correlations between two pathogenic trematodes (Ribeiroia ondatrae and Echinostoma trivolvis) both between wetlands and within individual hosts. In infection and coinfection experiments, Ribeiroia caused greater pathology than Echinostoma, including high host mortality (24%) and severe limb malformations (75%). No interactive effects were noted for host pathology, but both parasites decreased the per capita persistence of one another by 17-36%. Thus, in spite of consistently positive associations from field data, these parasites negatively affected the persistence of one another, likely via cross immunity (apparent competition). These findings underscore the danger of inferring parasite interactions from coinfection patterns and emphasize the potential disconnect between within-host processes (e.g., competition) and between-host processes (e.g., exposure and transmission). Here, correlated coinfections likely resulted from similarities in the parasites' host requirements and heterogeneity in host susceptibility or exposure. Understanding complex interactions among parasites depends critically on the scale under consideration, highlighting the importance of combining coinfection field studies with mechanistic experiments.