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Asked by Sania to Mark, Linda, Koi, Franco, Claire on 14 Jun 2016.
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Franco Falcone answered on 14 Jun 2016:
Hi Sania
I would say that we are also animals, but the difference is that many (but not all) parasitic infections can be avoided by good hygiene, for example having and using latrines, toilets, etc. not walking bare feet on soil, not using human faeces as fertilisers, washing food etc. . I don’t think hat we would be any less likely to get infected with parasites if we lived like our cavemen ancestors did. The other animals don’t have all these options so will be more exposed to parasites than we are.
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Claire Bourke answered on 14 Jun 2016:
I agree with Franco, we aren’t less vulnerable to parasites than animals by nature, but we have found ways to avoid being exposed to them (hygiene, sanitation, preparing food differently, using mosquito nets etc.) that other animals haven’t. In some ways our view of which parasites we are/aren’t vulnerable to is a bit biased, since research has tended to focus on parasites that affect humans and the animals that we live with more closely (pets and livestock); because of that it is quite difficult to tell which animals (humans included) are most at risk. There is lots of interesting research into parasites in wild animals and the more we look, the more we find!
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Linda Anagu answered on 14 Jun 2016:
@Sania, animals may get infected more easily but the parasite may not multiply and grow to cause disease, because animals are constantly expose to these parasites and have evolved to tolerate then and live in a symbiotic relationship with them. Humans tend to avoid contact with contaminated surfaces or infected animals and this makes us vulnerable to any infectious disease. However, you cannot deliberately decide to expose yourself, but you can reduce the amount of chemicals you use to clean. This enables the normal microbes found in and on your body to maintain a balance and prevent disease causing parasites from invading and causing disease.
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Mark Booth answered on 14 Jun 2016:
Hi Sania
I think my answer might be slightly different to the others on this one. Most people affected by worm parasites are fairly lightly infected but some people appear more susceptible. This is not just due to hygiene practices but is also partly due to physiological and genetic factors. Some people are protected from malaria because of genetic factors.
So what may have happened is that humans have evolved complex immune systems that are, in most cases, better able to combat the parasites. The effects of parasites on animals can be quite extreme in ways that we don’t see so much in humans, possibly because their immune systems are less complex, but also because the parasites are ‘allowed’ to control host numbers to prevent over-crowding. This has been demonstrated in some animal systems where the parasites are removed and the population of hosts increases very rapidly. You might think this is a good thing, but for animals it is a very bad thing because if they grow exponentially they will eventually run of food and the population may become extinct. If parasites regulate the host population, it is a kind of win-win situation
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Arporn Wangwiwatsin answered on 14 Jun 2016:
Hi Sania, I echo what Franco and Claire said, in that it is not by nature of being a human that we are less vulnerable than animal (in this sense I guess you were thinking about wild and farm animals?) but it’s by the life style and practice that we develop as a society
…Also we learnt about parasites so we know how to avoid them if we want to!
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