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The cost of an immune response: vaccination reduces parental effort

Råberg, Lars LU ; Nilsson, Jan-Åke LU ; Ilmonen, P ; Stjernman, Martin LU orcid and Hasselquist, Dennis LU (2000) In Ecology Letters 3(5). p.382-386
Abstract
A fundamental assumption of theories of the ecology and evolution of inducible defences is that protective responses to attacks by parasites or predators should not only have benefits, but also costs. The vertebrate immune system is by far the best studied example of an inducible defence, yet little is known about the costs of an immune response, especially in natural populations. To test: if an immune response per se is costly, we induced an antibody response in female blue tits, Parus caeruleus, by immunising them with human diphtheria-tetanus vaccine, and compared their nestling-feeding rate with that of saline-injected controls. We found that vaccinated females reduced their nestling feeding rate, thus demonstrating a cost of the... (More)
A fundamental assumption of theories of the ecology and evolution of inducible defences is that protective responses to attacks by parasites or predators should not only have benefits, but also costs. The vertebrate immune system is by far the best studied example of an inducible defence, yet little is known about the costs of an immune response, especially in natural populations. To test: if an immune response per se is costly, we induced an antibody response in female blue tits, Parus caeruleus, by immunising them with human diphtheria-tetanus vaccine, and compared their nestling-feeding rate with that of saline-injected controls. We found that vaccinated females reduced their nestling feeding rate, thus demonstrating a cost of the immune response in the currency of parental effort. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Ecology Letters
volume
3
issue
5
pages
382 - 386
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:0033832544
ISSN
1461-023X
DOI
10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00154.x
project
Immunoecology
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1dd4ec91-ecfa-4d26-ab74-1d265e7d2243 (old id 145946)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:37:32
date last changed
2024-03-25 06:27:34
@article{1dd4ec91-ecfa-4d26-ab74-1d265e7d2243,
  abstract     = {{A fundamental assumption of theories of the ecology and evolution of inducible defences is that protective responses to attacks by parasites or predators should not only have benefits, but also costs. The vertebrate immune system is by far the best studied example of an inducible defence, yet little is known about the costs of an immune response, especially in natural populations. To test: if an immune response per se is costly, we induced an antibody response in female blue tits, Parus caeruleus, by immunising them with human diphtheria-tetanus vaccine, and compared their nestling-feeding rate with that of saline-injected controls. We found that vaccinated females reduced their nestling feeding rate, thus demonstrating a cost of the immune response in the currency of parental effort.}},
  author       = {{Råberg, Lars and Nilsson, Jan-Åke and Ilmonen, P and Stjernman, Martin and Hasselquist, Dennis}},
  issn         = {{1461-023X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{382--386}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Ecology Letters}},
  title        = {{The cost of an immune response: vaccination reduces parental effort}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00154.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00154.x}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2000}},
}