20796206
not annotated - annotated - LINNAEUS only
Linking disease and community ecology through behavioural indicators: immunochallenge of white-footed mice and its ecological impacts.
1. Pathogens and immune challenges can induce changes in host phenotype in ways that indirectly impact important community interactions, including those that affect host-pathogen interactions. 2. To explore host behavioural response to immune challenge, we exposed wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) to an immunogen from an endemic, zoonotic pathogen, the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. White-footed mice are a major reservoir host of Lyme disease (LD) spirochetes in northeastern USA and an abundant member of forest communities. The activity patterns, foraging behaviour, and space use of white-footed mice have implications for population growth rates of community members upon which mice incidentally prey (i.e. gypsy moths and native thrushes), as well as potentially determining host-vector encounter rates and human risk of LD. 3. Immunochallenge led to specific humoral (antibody) and cellular (i.e. elevated neutrophils and eosinophils) immune responses, supporting use of the immunogen as a surrogate for pathogenic infection. 4. Immunochallenged mice had reduced wheel-running activity early in the night when measured in the lab. However, mouse activity, as measured by track plates in natural field experiments, did not differ between mice exposed to the immunogen and unexposed mice. 5. Foraging behaviour of wild mice in the field - assessed with giving-up densities of seed at artificial feeding stations - was affected by exposure to the immunogen. Whereas immunochallenge did not influence whether foraging mice gained information on patch quality while foraging, it led to reductions in predator avoidance during foraging, suggesting that the proportion of space used by foraging mice may be greater as a result of immunochallenge. This increased space use is predicted to increase encounter rates with patchily distributed LD vectors (ticks) and with incidental prey items. 6. Thus, immunochallenge in white-footed mice, and potentially pathogenic infection, have the potential to indirectly impact community interactions, including those important for pathogen transmission.
Ann file
T1 Species 89 106 white-footed mice
N1 Reference T1 Taxonomy:10041
T2 Species 407 424 white-footed mice
N2 Reference T2 Taxonomy:10041
T3 Species 426 445 Peromyscus leucopus
N3 Reference T3 Taxonomy:10041
T4 Species 514 534 Borrelia burgdorferi
N4 Reference T4 Taxonomy:139
T5 Species 536 553 White-footed mice
N5 Reference T5 Taxonomy:10041
T6 Species 740 757 white-footed mice
N6 Reference T6 Taxonomy:10041
T7 Species 966 971 human
N7 Reference T7 Taxonomy:9606
T8 Species 2071 2088 white-footed mice
N8 Reference T8 Taxonomy:10041
T9 Species 1300 1305 mouse
T10 Species 836 840 mice
T11 Species 1206 1210 mice
T12 Species 1397 1401 mice
T13 Species 1441 1445 mice
T14 Species 1477 1481 mice
T15 Species 1674 1678 mice
T16 Species 1848 1852 mice
N9 Reference T10 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N10 Reference T11 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N11 Reference T9 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N12 Reference T12 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N13 Reference T13 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N14 Reference T14 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N15 Reference T15 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
N16 Reference T16 Taxonomy:10090 Mus musculus
T17 Species 865 876 gypsy moths
N17 Reference T17 Taxonomy:13123 Lymantria dispar