The nutritional status of animals affected by: -is related to the quality and quantity of food intake
-is affected by the efficiency of its digestion by the animal (Murray, keith and Cary, 1998).
Energy from food available for growth, reproduction and storage = food metabolized = food used for body maintenance. This can be affected by any parasites the animals may harbor which can affect the animals' metabolism.
Some parasites are capable of appropriating significant amounts of nutrients from the host, and thus reducing the net energy available to the animals, while others have no negative affects at all (209).
Parasites which appropriate large amounts of energy from animals can have effects on their body condition or their reproduction, but these effects may be negated if there is an abundant food supply available.
Malnutrition ? lowered resistance to parasitic infection because of compromised immune systems.
Food shortages ? higher rates of parasitism ? higher nutritional demands on the animals (Murray, Keith and Cary, 1998, 209).
Natural vertebrate populations may be adversely affected by a synergistic relationship between a reduced food supply and parasitic infections. This possibility was explored in the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) by Murray, Keith and Cary (1998).
The researchers hypothesized that:
-nutrition and parasitism would act synergistically on hare production,
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