{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.014807502467917079, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.295031055900621, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Host immunity shapes the impact of climate changes on the dynamics of parasite infections

Significance To understand and mitigate the impact of climate change on host-parasite trophic interactions, we need to know how variation in immune responses among hosts can modify the effect of warming on infectious disease processes. By modeling the dynamics of infection of two parasite species in a rabbit population, we show that immunity can interact with climate. Specifically, the annual intensity of infection remains relatively constant over time, although younger hosts carry heavier infections in the summer in warming years. In contrast, in the second parasite the lack of immune control leads the intensity to increase with warming. Immunity can reduce the severity of population infection, but it can also exacerbate parasite intensity in the younger individuals exposed to climate warming. Global climate change is predicted to alter the distribution and dynamics of soil-transmitted helminth infections, and yet host immunity can also influence the impact of warming on host–parasite interactions and mitigate the long-term effects. We used time-series data from two helminth species of a natural herbivore and investigated the contribution of climate change and immunity on the long-term and seasonal dynamics of infection. We provide evidence that climate warming increases the availability of infective stages of both helminth species and the proportional increase in the intensity of infection for the helminth not regulated by immunity. In contrast, there is no significant long-term positive trend in the intensity for the immune-controlled helminth, as immunity reduces the net outcome of climate on parasite dynamics. Even so, hosts experienced higher infections of this helminth at an earlier age during critical months in the warmer years. Immunity can alleviate the expected long-term effect of climate on parasite infections but can also shift the seasonal peak of infection toward the younger individuals.