title: The effects of sex and age on phytohaemagglutinin skin-testing of deer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if there are sex- or age-related differences in the increase in skinfold thickness in response to the mitogen phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in red deer.
  
  
  METHODS
  One dose of 250 mug PHA was injected intradermally in the right side of the neck, and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) was injected at a second site as a control, in 110 (51 males and 59 females) captive Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus), ranging in age from 21 months to > or =5 years. Skinfold thicknesses were measured immediately before and 72 h following injection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant effect of gender on the average increase in skinfold thickness; males had greater increases (8.8 (SEM 0.57) mm) than females (4.23 (SEM 0.39) mm) after correcting for other confounding variables. No age-related differences were evident, but differences between sexes were more marked with increasing age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Effects of gender, probably due to differences in energetic and reproductive constraints in red deer, should be taken into account when interpreting skinfold-test data, both in ecology and in the control of tuberculosis (Tb). Males tend to have a thicker skin than females, so skinfold increase relative to the thickness of the skin, rather than skinfold increase per se, should be used as a more appropriate measure of skinfold increase. This may also have clinical relevance in the interpretation of tuberculin skin testing.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigacion en Recursos Cinegeticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain.
authors.forename: I G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Fernandez-de-Mera
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hofle
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gaspar-Lopez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gortazar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003670:Deer; D005260:Female; D006968:Hypersensitivity, Delayed / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D007271:Injections, Intradermal / Q000662:veterinary; D008297:Male; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000276:immunology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000662:veterinary*; D012885:Skinfold Thickness
chemical_list: D010835:Phytohemagglutinins