In lieu of the poster session at our 2020 conference, we are profiling posters from this year’s conference on our website every few weeks. This month, we’re featuring Arya Horon’s work examining intestinal parasites in coyotes.
See a pdf of Arya’s poster.
Poster authors: Arya Horon, Deanna Steckler, Colleen Cassady St. Clair
Poster title: Comparison of Intestinal Parasite Diversity Between Urban and Peri-Urban Coyotes (Canis latrans)
Coyotes are hosts to many zoonotic diseases, including some that can cause fatal conditions in humans (e.g., Echinococcus multilocularis). Coyotes also occur in higher densities in cities, which can increase parasitic transmission opportunities. Arya’s research examined if there was a difference between urban and peri-urban coyotes in prevalence, diversity, and intensity of parasitic infections. She compared 30 urban coyotes from Edmonton to 30 coyotes from Leduc County. Using a variety of methods, she determined the presence of Taenia sp., Alaria sp., Uncinaria sp., Echinococcus and Toxascaris sp. in each sampled population. Arya found that urban coyotes in Edmonton hosted more species with higher prevalence and intensity of infections than peri-urban populations from the Leduc area. Her work has implications for the infection risk of Echinococcosis for human and domestic dogs.
Check out Arya’s poster for a great visual representation of her results and to see which parasites were more prevalent in urban coyotes. Her poster uses great photographs of her study species to draw you in and the colour scheme provides a clear representation of her work. Arya is now in her final year of Biological Sciences undergraduate degree from the University of Alberta. She hopes to continue onto a Masters degree studying human-wildlife conflict or animal behaviour.