DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7nv0h
title: Data from: A combined parasitological-molecular approach for non-invasive characterization of parasitic nematode communities in wild hosts

description: Most hosts are concurrently or sequentially infected with multiple
 parasites; thus, fully understanding interactions between individual
 parasite species and their hosts depends on accurate characterization of
 the parasite community. For parasitic nematodes, noninvasive methods for
 obtaining quantitative, species-specific infection data in wildlife are
 often unreliable. Consequently, characterization of gastrointestinal
 nematode communities of wild hosts has largely relied on lethal sampling
 to isolate and enumerate adult worms directly from the tissues of dead
 hosts. The necessity of lethal sampling severely restricts the host
 species that can be studied, the adequacy of sample sizes to assess
 diversity, the geographic scope of collections and the research questions
 that can be addressed. Focusing on gastrointestinal nematodes of wild
 African buffalo, we evaluated whether accurate characterization of
 nematode communities could be made using a noninvasive technique that
 combined conventional parasitological approaches with molecular barcoding.
 To establish the reliability of this new method, we compared estimates of
 gastrointestinal nematode abundance, prevalence, richness and community
 composition derived from lethal sampling with estimates derived from our
 noninvasive approach. Our noninvasive technique accurately estimated total
 and species-specific worm abundances, as well as worm prevalence and
 community composition when compared to the lethal sampling method.
 Importantly, the rate of parasite species discovery was similar for both
 methods, and only a modest number of barcoded larvae (n = 10) were needed
 to capture key aspects of parasite community composition. Overall, this
 new noninvasive strategy offers numerous advantages over lethal sampling
 methods for studying nematode–host interactions in wildlife and can
 readily be applied to a range of study systems.
description: Adult nematode
 dataFile includes
 species-specific counts of adult Trichostrongyle nematode specimens,
 strongyle fecal egg count (eggs/gram feces), capture date, and the GPS
 coordinates where each buffalo host was captured. These data were used to
 generate results reported in Figure 1a and Figure 2. An explanation of how
 these data were generated is included in the
 publication.Nematode type specimens
 and reference sequencesFile includes nematode
 type specimen ITS-2 sequences, US National Parasite Collection accession
 numbers, and GenBank accession numbers. These data were used to determine
 the species identity of larval ITS-2 sequences. An explanation of how
 these data were generated is included in the
 publication.Adult-larvae matched
 nematode samplesFile includes
 species-specific counts of larvae identified using ITS-2 sequences,
 species-specific counts of adult Trichostrongyle nematode specimens,
 strongyle fecal egg count (eggs/gram feces), capture date, and the GPS
 coordinates where each buffalo host was captured. This is the data set
 used to generate comparisons between larvae and adult sampling methods,
 Figure 1b & 1c, and Figure 3a. An explanation of how these data were
 generated is included in the publication.Sequences for
 adult-matched nematode larvaeFile includes the ITS-2
 sequences for each larvae from hosts with matching adult nematode
 specimens. This is the data set used to generate the larval
 species-specific count data listed in datafile “Adult-larvae matched
 nematode samples.csv”. An explanation of how these data were generated is
 included in the publication.Additional nematode
 larvae for bootstrappingFile includes larval
 species-specific nematode data from additional non-lethally sampled
 buffalo. This is the data set used to generate Figure 2 and Figure 3b
 & 3c. An explanation of how these data were generated is included in
 the publication.