Effect of parasite infections on fish body condition: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Using host body condition indices (BCIs) based on the relationship between host body mass and length is a general and pervasive approach to assess the negative effects of parasites on host health. Although many researchers, especially fish biologists and fisheries managers, commonly utilize BCIs, the overall general patterns among BCI - infection relationships remain unclear. Here, we first systematically reviewed 985 fish BCI - infection relationships from 216 publications and investigated the factors affecting the strength and directionality of effects in BCI - infection relationships. We specifically predicted that the BCI measure used, parasite taxonomic group, and the infection measure used would influence the observed effect size and directionality of BCI - infection relationships. We found that most studies were heavily biased towards specific BCI measures such as Fulton's BCI and Relative BCI. Furthermore, studies using Fulton's BCI were more likely to report significant results compared with those using other BCI measures, suggesting that index choice could lead to an overestimation of the negative effects of parasites. Our meta-regressions uncovered that the use of parasite intensity as an infection measure and studies based on experimental rather than natural infections were more likely to report significant negative effects, however there were no differences among parasite taxonomic groups. Surprisingly, many studies, especially field studies, did not report significant negative correlations between BCI and infection, contrary to widespread expectations among researchers that parasites would negatively affect fish health. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these results. Finally, we make several recommendations for the use of BCI - infection relationships in future studies.