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Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)

Variation in immune defence in birds is often explained either by external factors such as food availability and disease pressure or by internal factors such as moult and reproductive effort. We explored these factors together in one sampling design by measuring immune activity over the time frame o...

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Autores principales: Sandström, Cecilia A. M., Prop, Jouke, van der Jeugd, Henk, Loonen, Maarten J. J. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269420/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25517982
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114812
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author Sandström, Cecilia A. M.
Prop, Jouke
van der Jeugd, Henk
Loonen, Maarten J. J. E.
author_facet Sandström, Cecilia A. M.
Prop, Jouke
van der Jeugd, Henk
Loonen, Maarten J. J. E.
author_sort Sandström, Cecilia A. M.
collection PubMed
description Variation in immune defence in birds is often explained either by external factors such as food availability and disease pressure or by internal factors such as moult and reproductive effort. We explored these factors together in one sampling design by measuring immune activity over the time frame of the moulting period of Arctic-breeding barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). We assessed baseline innate immunity by measuring levels of complement-mediated lysis and natural antibody-mediated agglutination together with total and differential leukocyte counts. Variation in immune activity during moult was strongly associated with calendar date and to a smaller degree with the growth stage of wing feathers. We suggest that the association with calendar date reflected temporal changes in the external environment. This environmental factor was further explored by comparing the immune activity of geese in the Arctic population with conspecifics in the temperate climate zone at comparable moult stages. In the Arctic environment, which has a lower expected disease load, geese exhibited significantly lower values of complement-mediated lysis, their blood contained fewer leukocytes, and levels of phagocytic cells and reactive leukocytes were relatively low. This suggests that lower baseline immune activity could be associated with lower disease pressure. We conclude that in our study species, external factors such as food availability and disease pressure have a greater effect on temporal variation of baseline immune activity than internal factors such as moult stage.
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spelling pubmed-42694202014-12-26 Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) Sandström, Cecilia A. M. Prop, Jouke van der Jeugd, Henk Loonen, Maarten J. J. E. PLoS One Research Article Variation in immune defence in birds is often explained either by external factors such as food availability and disease pressure or by internal factors such as moult and reproductive effort. We explored these factors together in one sampling design by measuring immune activity over the time frame of the moulting period of Arctic-breeding barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). We assessed baseline innate immunity by measuring levels of complement-mediated lysis and natural antibody-mediated agglutination together with total and differential leukocyte counts. Variation in immune activity during moult was strongly associated with calendar date and to a smaller degree with the growth stage of wing feathers. We suggest that the association with calendar date reflected temporal changes in the external environment. This environmental factor was further explored by comparing the immune activity of geese in the Arctic population with conspecifics in the temperate climate zone at comparable moult stages. In the Arctic environment, which has a lower expected disease load, geese exhibited significantly lower values of complement-mediated lysis, their blood contained fewer leukocytes, and levels of phagocytic cells and reactive leukocytes were relatively low. This suggests that lower baseline immune activity could be associated with lower disease pressure. We conclude that in our study species, external factors such as food availability and disease pressure have a greater effect on temporal variation of baseline immune activity than internal factors such as moult stage. Public Library of Science 2014-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4269420/ /pubmed/25517982 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114812 Text en © 2014 Sandström et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sandström, Cecilia A. M.
Prop, Jouke
van der Jeugd, Henk
Loonen, Maarten J. J. E.
Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title_full Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title_fullStr Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title_full_unstemmed Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title_short Baseline Immune Activity Is Associated with Date Rather than with Moult Stage in the Arctic-Breeding Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
title_sort baseline immune activity is associated with date rather than with moult stage in the arctic-breeding barnacle goose (branta leucopsis)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269420/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25517982
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114812
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