A comparative study of white blood cell counts and disease risk in carnivores.
A comparative study of white blood cell counts and disease risk in carnivores.
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食肉动物白细胞计数和疾病风险的比较研究。
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2002.2249
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Antonovics,Janis
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Nunn,CharlesL;Gittleman,JohnL;Antonovics,Janis
在灵长类动物中，白细胞（WBC）计数的基线水平与交配乱交有关。据推测，灵长类动物免疫系统的差异反映了性传播疾病（STDs）的病原体风险。在这里，我们通过检验涉及食肉动物行为、生态和生活史因素的假设来检验这一结果的普遍性。再一次，我们发现食肉动物交配乱交和白细胞计数升高之间有显著的相关性。此外，我们还发现了与社会性、基质使用和生活史参数之间的关系。这些跨独立分类学目的比较结果表明，免疫系统的进化（以血细胞计数基础水平的系统发育差异为代表）与滥交和相关变量所涉及的疾病风险密切相关。我们发现饮食中肉类的比例与白细胞计数之间的联系只有有限的支持，这与食肉动物用来避免猎物传播寄生虫的行为和生理机制是一致的。我们讨论了与疾病风险、寄生虫传播模式和保护生物学意义的分类差异相关的其他比较问题。
In primates, baseline levels of white blood cell (WBC) counts are related to mating promiscuity. It was hypothesized that differences in the primate immune system reflect pathogen risks from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Here, we test for the generality of this result by examining hypotheses involving behavioural, ecological and life–history factors in carnivores. Again, we find a significant correlation in carnivores between mating promiscuity and elevated levels of WBC counts. In addition, we find relationships with measures of sociality, substrate use and life–history parameters. These comparative results across independent taxonomic orders indicate that the evolution of the immune system, as represented by phylogenetic differences in basal levels of blood cell counts, is closely linked to disease risk involved with promiscuous mating and associated variables. We found only limited support for an association between the percentage of meat in the diet and WBC counts, which is consistent with the behavioural and physiological mechanisms that carnivores use to avoid parasite transmission from their prey. We discuss additional comparative questions related to taxonomic differences in disease risk, modes of parasite transmission and implications for conservation biology.