Meeting Abstract
The field of ecoimmunology is interdisciplinary and complex, and the toolbox of ecoimmunological methods is appropriately multifaceted to reflect this fact. However, assays can be expensive and sample volumes can be small, so choices must be made to determine what tests should be run to best meet the needs of the researcher while acknowledging the limitations of the model. In this study, we evaluated the immune function of Common Gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) with a wide variety of commonly used ecoimmunological metrics, including microbiocidal ability, lymphocyte counts, oxidative stress, hemoagglutination, lysis, and assessments of internal and external parasites using histological techniques. Some measures, like micobiocidal ability, showed high amounts of individual variation, while other measures, like oxidative stress, remained fairly constant in this species. Although we found strengths and weaknesses in many commonly-used metrics, we also found that interpreting multiple measures of immunity together was much more informative than looking at any single measure individually.
