Animals, parasites use same ecology agenda

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Scottish scientists have found the same ecological framework determines breeding numbers and population size among animals and malaria parasites.

Andrea Graham, a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council fellow at the University of Edinburgh, determined the same community ecology principles that determine how different animal species affect each other's population sizes through competition for food and hunting by predators, also affect parasite species interacting within the microcosm of a single host.

Graham said her research suggests a range of drugs used to treat infection by parasitic worms might alter the effectiveness of anti-malarial and anti-viral treatments by affecting the level of competition among parasite species.

"People and animals do not normally suffer just one parasite infection at a time," said Graham. "By applying the same ideas used in studies of big ecosystems to parasites I have been able to show that we need ecological thinking in order to understand and thus control multiple infections. This approach will help us to most effectively treat diseases such as malaria in a world that's full of co-infected hosts."

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.