Two estimates of the metabolic costs of antibody production in migratory shorebirds: low costs, internal reallocation, or both?
2006
Piersma, Theunis, | Mendes, Luisa, | Hasselquist, Dennis,
We measured the costs of mounting a humoralimmune response using two novel antigens(tetanus and diphtheria) in two shorebird species(Scolopacidae): Red Knot (Calidris canutus, measuredin autumn) and Ruff (Philomachus pugnax, measuredin spring). Metabolic rate was measured during thepreinjection phase, at the building phase of the primaryimmune response, and at peak secondary immuneresponse by determining the oxygenconsumption of the postabsorptive birds at rest. Confirmingearlier studies, Red Knots and Ruffs respondedwith lower antibody titers to the diphtheria than to thetetanus antigen. Although Red Knots and Ruffs producedthe same amounts of antibodies, Red Knotsshowed a significant 13% increase in basal metabolicrate (BMR) during the secondary antibody response,whereas Ruffs showed a 15%, but only marginallysignificant, reduction in BMR. The results from thisstudy suggest that the energetic costs of an immuneresponse may be small, but the ‘‘negative cost’’ inRuffs hints at the possibility of resource reallocationand the concomitant difficulty of measuring such costsduring ‘‘basal’’ metabolic rate measurements.
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