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. 2010 Aug 23;6(4):552-4.
doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.1078. Epub 2010 Feb 17.

Selection on innate immunity and body condition in Florida scrub-jays throughout an epidemic

Travis E Wilcoxen  1 , Raoul K Boughton, Stephan J Schoech
Affiliations

Selection on innate immunity and body condition in Florida scrub-jays throughout an epidemic

Travis E Wilcoxen et al. Biol Lett. .

Abstract

Opportunities to investigate selection in free-living species during a naturally occurring epidemic are rare; however, we assessed innate immunocompetence in Florida scrub-jays before the population suffered the greatest over-winter mortality in 20 years of study. Propitiously, three months prior to the epidemic, we had sampled a number of male breeders to evaluate a suite of physiological measures that are commonly used to estimate the overall health-state of an individual. There was a significant, positive selection gradient for both Escherichia coli bacterial killing capability and body condition, suggesting that directional selection had occurred upon each of these traits during the disease epidemic.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(a) Variation in E. coli bacterial killing and (b) body condition (BCI) as a function of survival (0 = dead, 1 = alive), represented as a box (25th and 75th percentiles with median line) and whisker (1.5× interquartile range or max value if less) plot.
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