Abstract
Among the various costs of gregarious behaviors, proximity highly contributes to facilitating parasite transmission. However, the intensity of parasite infection varies between individuals of a social group. It is then of high interest to identify the causes of such inequality for parasite management. In this study, we investigated the impact of individual social behaviors on parasite distribution in the largest European group of captive plains zebras (Equus quagga boehmi) and the consequences of anthelmintic treatment. For six months, 22 plains zebras were kept in a safari enclosure and observed for 10 minutes each by focal sampling for a total of 44 days over three months. Strongyle and coccidia individual infections were estimated monthly with a commercial OVATEC Plus fecal analysis kit provided to veterinarians for fecal egg/oocyst count. Then, we used GLMM models with age, sex and time until or since anthelmintic treatment as fixed factors and with social factors (degree of connection and dominance) as predictors of individual variation in fecal parasite eggs and oocyst shedding.The social structure observed in captive plains zebras is comparable to that of wild plains zebras and horses. Before treatment, females were more infected than males. Then, we observed an increase in coccidia infection after anthelmintic treatment, and approximately 20% of zebras carried 70% of the total strongyle infection. Dominance, and degree were strong predictors of an individual’s strongyle infection intensity after anthelmintic treatment. Further investigation is needed to identify new treatment strategies based on social behaviors and to improve anthelmintics administration in large groups of equids.