Meeting Abstract

P3.3  Sunday, Jan. 6  House finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) balance investment in behavioral and immunological defenses against pathogens ZYLBERBERG, M*; KLASING, KC; HAHN, TP; University of California, Davis; California Academy of Sciences; University of California, Davis; University of California, Davis mzylberberg@ucdavis.edu

Infection with parasites and pathogens is costly for hosts, causing loss of nutritional resources, reproductive potential, tissue integrity, and even life. In response, animals have evolved behavioral and immunological strategies to avoid infection with pathogens and infestation with parasites. Scientists generally study these strategies in isolation from each other; however, since these defenses entail costs, host individuals should benefit from balancing investment in these strategies, and knowing their relationship would inform our understanding of infectious disease dynamics. Here, we test the hypothesis that investment in immune function is inversely related to investment in behaviors that potentially decrease pathogen exposure. We show that Carpodacus mexicanus (house finches) alter their behavior in response to social partner health status, avoiding sick individuals. Moreover, we show that individuals investing less in behavioral pathogen defenses invest more in innate immune defenses. This individual variation in pathogen defense strategies is expected to affect the dynamics of pathogen spread through populations, and ultimately the course of epidemics. A deeper understanding of individual and population level disease defense strategies will improve our ability to understand, model, and predict the outcomes of pathogen spread in wildlife.