Raw data for Urine DNA (uDNA) as a non-lethal method for endoparasite biomonitoring: development and validation|内寄生物监测数据集|野生动物健康数据集

Changes in environmental conditions alter host-parasite interactions,
raising the need for effective epidemiological surveillance. Developing
operational, accurate, and cost-effective methods to assess individual
infection status and potential for pathogen spread is a prerequisite to
anticipate future disease outbreaks in wild populations. For
endoparasites, effective detection of infections usually relies on
host-lethal approaches, which are barely compatible with wildlife
conservation objectives. Here, we used the brown trout (Salmo trutta) -
Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae host-parasite system to develop a non-lethal
method for endoparasite infection detection, hereafter called “uDNA” for
urine DNA. The uDNA diagnostic test is based on the amplification of
endoparasite DNA from host urine. We sampled wild fish (N = 111) from
eight sites, let them excrete in individual buckets filled with mineral
water and performed parasite DNA amplification from water filtration. We
compared the results of the uDNA diagnostic test for host infection status
and parasite load to those from kidney samples (the current standard
method). uDNA was sensitive in determining host infection status (even for
infected hosts showing no sign of the disease), since up to 90% of fish
individuals were correctly assigned to their infection status. The
quantity of uDNA detected from the hosts depended on the sampling sites,
suggesting a spatial variation in the parasite spread. uDNA was
positively, but weakly correlated with parasite load in the kidney. This
correlation depended on the severity of macroscopic lesions caused by the
disease, and was negative in fish with severely damaged kidney, likely due
to impaired urine excretion. The uDNA approach provides novel avenues to
non-lethally infer infection parameters from wildlife populations at large
spatial scales. By targeting parasite transmission stage, uDNA is also
valuable to get insights on the parasite fitness and the ecological and
evolutionary dynamics of this host-parasite interaction.