Araujo Alessandra, Kirschman Lucas, Warne Robin W
Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA.
Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
Biol Lett. 2016 Aug;12(8). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0480.
Behavioural phenotypes may provide a means for identifying individuals that disproportionally contribute to disease spread and epizootic outbreaks. For example, bolder phenotypes may experience greater exposure and susceptibility to pathogenic infection because of distinct interactions with conspecifics and their environment. We tested the value of behavioural phenotypes in larval amphibians for predicting ranavirus transmission in experimental trials. We found that behavioural phenotypes characterized by latency-to-food and swimming profiles were predictive of disease susceptibility and infectiousness defined as the capacity of an infected host to transmit an infection by contacts. While viral shedding rates were positively associated with transmission, we also found an inverse relationship between contacts and infections. Together these results suggest intrinsic traits that influence behaviour and the quantity of pathogens shed during conspecific interactions may be an important contributor to ranavirus transmission. These results suggest that behavioural phenotypes provide a means to identify individuals more likely to spread disease and thus give insights into disease outbreaks that threaten wildlife and humans.
行为表型可能提供一种手段，用于识别那些对疾病传播和动物疫病暴发有不成比例贡献的个体。例如，更胆大的表型可能由于与同种个体及其环境的独特相互作用，而面临更高的病原体感染暴露风险和易感性。我们在实验中测试了幼体两栖动物的行为表型对于预测蛙病毒传播的价值。我们发现，以对食物的反应潜伏期和游泳特征为特征的行为表型可预测疾病易感性和传染性，传染性定义为受感染宿主通过接触传播感染的能力。虽然病毒脱落率与传播呈正相关，但我们也发现接触与感染之间存在反比关系。这些结果共同表明，影响行为以及在同种个体相互作用期间病原体脱落量的内在特征可能是蛙病毒传播的一个重要因素。这些结果表明，行为表型提供了一种手段，来识别更有可能传播疾病的个体，从而深入了解威胁野生动物和人类的疾病暴发情况。
