Hemoparasites Do Not Affect Life-History Traits and Cellular Immune Response in Treefrog Hosts Boana cordobae

POLLO, FAVIO; SALINAS, ZULMA; BARAQUET, MARIANA; OTERO, MANUEL A.; GRENAT, PABLO R.; SALAS, NANCY; MARTINO, ADOLFO L.; SINSCH, ULRICH

Animals

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Año: 2023 vol. 13

2076-2615

We provide the first evidence for hemoparasites in the endemic Cordoba treefrog Boanacordobae. We collected 37 adult frogs at 1200 m a.s.l. in the Comechingones Mountains in the Córdobaprovince (Argentina). Each individual was sexed, then snout–vent length and body mass wererecorded, a toe was collected for skeletochronological age determination, and a slide with a bloodsmear was prepared for hemoparasite screening, before releasing the frogs in situ. A total of 81%(n = 30) of the frogs were infected by hemogregarines and trypanosomes with a high intensity ofinfections. Dactylosoma was found for the first time in Argentina. Hemoparasites had no significanteffect on the leukocyte profile, which we assessed from the May–Grünwald–Giemsa-stained bloodsmears. The neutrophils/lymphocytes ratio, indicative of stress, was insignificantly higher (0.06) inparasitized frogs than in parasite-free individuals (0.04). Infected frogs were larger than the controls,but this effect vanished when correcting size data for age. Young frogs (first-breeders) dominated theage distribution of parasite-free individuals, suggesting that infection of frogs takes usually placeafter sexual maturation. Vectors transmitting hemoparasites to B. cordobae remain to be identified.We demonstrate that moderate to high intensities of hemoparasites do not significantly affect thecellular immune response of B. cordobae, or any of the life-history traits studied, nor did they showany external sign of disease.