期刊
PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH
卷 115, 期 6, 页码 2155-2164出版社
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00436-016-4957-x
关键词
Sex-biased parasitism; Helminthiasis; Eptesicus fuscus; Immunocompetence; Body condition
类别
资金
- American Society of Mammalogists
- American Society of Parasitologists
- Annual Midwestern Conference of Parasitologists
- Western Michigan University
Sex-biased parasitism highlights potentially divergent approaches to parasite resistance resulting in differing energetic trade-offs for males and females; however, trade-offs between immunity and self-maintenance could also depend on host body condition. We investigated these relationships in the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, to determine if host sex or body condition better predicted parasite resistance, if testosterone levels predicted male parasite burdens, and if immune parameters could predict male testosterone levels. We found that male and female hosts had similar parasite burdens and female bats scored higher than males in only one immunological measure. Top models of helminth burden revealed interactions between body condition index and agglutination score as well as between agglutination score and host sex. Additionally, the strength of the relationships between sex, agglutination, and helminth burden is affected by body condition. Models of male parasite burden provided no support for testosterone predicting helminthiasis. Models that best predicted testosterone levels did not include parasite burden but instead consistently included month of capture and agglutination score. Thus, in our system, body condition was a more important predictor of immunity and worm burden than host sex.
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