Meeting Abstract
The time it takes for an animal’s immune system to respond to and clear an infection is influenced by many factors and can ultimately affect disease resistance and survival. Studies of the time-course of an immune response and the relationship between immune components in non-model organism are limited, but necessary for understanding the immune system in an ecological context. This study uses a non-model reptile, Thamnophis elegans, to assess the relationship between innate immune components following a primary injection with sheep red blood cells (SRBC’s) and changes in immune response between primary and secondary challenges of SRBC’s. To assess the time-course of the immune response, bacterial killing capacity, hemolysis, hemagglutination, and differential leukocyte counts were measured at days 0, 4, 8, 12, and 19 following both primary and secondary injections. Bacterial killing capacity, hemolysis, and hemagglutination increased following the primary injection and bacterial killing capacity and hemagglutination increased following the secondary injection. Of these variables, only hemagglutination increased more following the secondary injection than the primary injection, suggesting some role of acquired immunity in these organisms.
