Endo-Parasitic Infestation in Captive and Free-Living Rhesus Macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) in Bangladesh

The present study addresses parasitic infestation in Macaca mulatta in free-ranging and captive areas of Shadhana Awshadhalaya factory

) and even community biodiversity (Hudson [5]). Parasites and infectious diseases can trigger or accelerate population declines and have become a big alarm in conservation biology (Altizer, et al. [6]). Primates are susceptible to various protozoa and helminth parasites (Wanert,et al. [7]). Thus, parasites are an integral part of the natural history of mammals and are always of interest.
Natural infections of gastrointestinal protozoa and helminths have been exhibited in a variety of species of monkeys.
Strongyloides sp., Oesophagostomum sp., and Trichuris trichiura were previously considered among the most common pathogens causing poor development, anemia, and diarrhoea in macaques and other NHPs (Honjo, et al. [11][12][13]). Recently, captive NHPs were resulted pathogenic for their hosts and found that they can be frequently affected by several species of intestinal protozoans (Lee, et al. [14][15][16][17]). Several studies have demonstrated that non-human primates may be carriers of human gastrointestinal parasites. Moreover, most parasites noted in NHPs represent a high zoonotic risk for researchers and caretakers in breeding centers (Loomis [18]).
Thus, people living in close proximity of such animals or individuals involved in game parks, animal orphanages or research stations may be at risk of acquiring pathogens from infected animals.
Moreover, non-human primates are often valuable in studies of either human diseases processes or vaccine and drug development.
It is therefore important that animals used in such studies should not harbour parasites since results obtained using parasitized animals may not reveal the true picture. Additionally, these animals play an important role in natural ecosystems; hence heavy parasite loads may have a negative impact on their population sizes. The rhesus macaque is well known to science due to its relatively easy upkeep in captivity, wide availability and closeness to humans anatomically and physiologically. It has been used extensively in medical and biological research on human and animal health-related topics.
However, no previous works on endoparasitic infections of rhesus monkeys in Bangladesh were found in the literature. This article, therefore, highlights the exploratory and descriptive study on the different types of gastrointestinal parasites that affect populations of both wild and captive monkeys.
The variance ratio with the p-value was used to compare the dispersion of parasites between the Gandaria and Zoo samples.
For each case, it was considered the parametric (Welch) and nonparametric (Wilcoxon) tests to study if the two population means for each of the parasites was the same for the two study areas. It was also found the 95% confidence interval of the differences between the two population means for each of the parasites.

Results
This paper aims to determine the parasite community of the host rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), to estimate the prevalence and intensity of rhesus macaques in two study areas, the National  1).

Estimated Prevalence, Mean Intensity and EPG (Egg/Cyst/ Larva Per Gram) of Parasite Groups by Location and Study
Year: In the present study, it is evident that nematoda was the most dominant parasite. In both, the study areas, the prevalence   Using the combined data of Gandaria the Box plot for each of the parasites demonstrate that the prevalence of Entamoeba sp.
was centered higher than all other parasites in the protozoa group.
Both the Entamoeba sp. and Toxoplasma sp.   Using the combined Zoo data, the Box plots indicate that the prevalence of Entamoeba sp. was centered the highest followed by Toxoplasma sp. among the protozoa group. The Entamoeba sp.
prevalence was negatively skewed while that of Toxoplasma sp.
was positively skewed. The spread of Toxoplasma sp. prevalence was higher than other protozoan parasites. On the other hand, the prevalence of Ancylostoma sp. was centered the highest among the nematoda parasites. Most of the parasites in this group were highly spread out in terms of prevalence (Figure 5a).

Discussion
The present analyses reveal significant richness and diversity and Grutter [39]

Conclusion
This is the first report on endo-parasitic infection of the rhesus monkey in captive and free-ranging populations. The prevalence, EPG and intensity of helminth and protozoan parasites of the gastrointestinal tract in populations of free-ranging and captive monkeys were noted which provides baseline data on the gastrointestinal parasites in both study areas. The average prevalence of parasites was higher in captive monkeys than that in free-ranging monkeys. Seasonal fluctuation of parasitic infection was found from the captive and free-ranging monkeys which suggests environmental factors may affect the seasonal variation of parasites in monkeys. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) constitute an integral part of biodiversity and a cognizable link between humans and nature. Therefore, the findings of this study will serve as a guide to establish the necessary preventive measures to favor the conservation of this species.