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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on October 12, 2005
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(1):20-24; doi:10.1093/beheco/ari091
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Age, parasites, and condition affect humoral immune response in tropical pythons

Beata Ujvaria and Thomas Madsena,b

a School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia, and b Department of Animal Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, S-22362 Lund, Sweden

Address correspondence to T. Madsen. E-mail: thomas.madsen{at}zooekol.lu.se.

Mounting an immune response has been suggested to be physiologically costly because of metabolic requirements of immune cells specifically and upregulation of the immune system in general. We investigated such costs in free-living water pythons (Liasis fuscus), immunized with a harmless antigen, keyhole limpet hemocyanin. In the present study, we analyze the independent effects of age, blood parasite load, and body condition on the ability to mount a humoral immune response (level of antibody production to novel antigens). Python humoral immune response decreased with increasing body length/age, decreased with increasing blood parasite load, and decreased with declining body condition. The results suggest an energetic trade-off between immunocompetence and other energetically costly processes.

Key words: age, condition, humoral immune response, parasites, python.


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