title: Selection on innate immunity and body condition in Florida scrub-jays throughout an epidemic.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. twilcoxn@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Travis E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Wilcoxen
authors.forename: Raoul K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Boughton
authors.forename: Stephan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schoech
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001824:Body Constitution / Q000502:physiology*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000662:veterinary*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000276:immunology; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D007121:Immunocompetence / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D046109:Passeriformes; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012641:Selection, Genetic
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone