With many non-human primates (NHPs) showing continued population decline, there is an ongoing need to better understand their ecology and conservation threats. One such threat is the risk of disease, with various bacterial, viral and parasitic infections previously reported to have damaging consequences for NHP hosts. Strongylid nematodes are one of the most commonly reported parasitic infections in NHPs. Current knowledge of NHP strongylid infections is restricted by their typical occurrence as mixed infections of multiple genera, which are indistinguishable through traditional microscopic approaches. Here, modern metagenomics approaches were applied for insight into the genetic diversity of strongylid infections in South-East and East Asian NHPs. We hypothesized that strongylid nematodes occur in mixed communities of multiple taxa, dominated by Oesophagostomum, matching previous findings using single-specimen genetics. Utilizing the Illumina MiSeq platform, ITS-2 strongylid metabarcoding was applied to 90 samples from various wild NHPs occurring in Malaysian Borneo and Japan. A clear dominance of Oesophagostomum aculeatum was found, with almost all sequences assigned to this species. This study suggests that strongylid communities of Asian NHPs may be less species-rich than those in African NHPs, where multi-genera communities are reported. Such knowledge contributes baseline data, assisting with ongoing monitoring of health threats to NHPs.

Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior Kyoto University Kyoto Japan

Centre for Functional Ecology Science for People and the Planet Department of Life Sciences University of Coimbra Coimbra Portugal

Danau Girang Field Centre c o Sabah Wildlife Department Kota Kinabalu Sabah Malaysia

Department of Biomedicine Faculty of Medicine Oita University Oita Japan

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine Faculty of Medicine Oita University Japan

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences České Budějovice Czech Republic

Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Kulliyah of Science Department of Biotechnology International Islamic University of Malaysia Kuantan Pahang Malaysia

Liberec Zoo Liberec Czech Republic

Organisms and Environment Division Cardiff School of Biosciences Cardiff University Cardiff UK

Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases Duke NUS Medical School Singapore

Sabah Wildlife Department Kota Kinabalu Sabah Malaysia

Wildlife Research Center Kyoto University Inuyama Campus Inuyama Japan

Wildlife Research Center Kyoto University Kyoto Japan

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