Sheldon B C
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, U.K.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1993 Mar 29;339(1290):491-7. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1993.0044.
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDS) span two current areas of sexual selection theory, namely the roles of multiple mating in determining individual reproductive success, and of parasites in mate choice, yet have been relatively neglected in the ecological literature. I reviewed the occurrence of STDS in populations of commercially kept birds and found widespread evidence for the existence of pathogenic STDS in such populations. STDs may have important consequences for the evolution of behaviour, reproductive physiology and some secondary sexual characteristics. Where STDS are costly they are hypothesized to affect the evolution of mating systems, and, via selection for hostility in the female reproductive tract, to explain high levels of sperm mortality after insemination. The potential for coevolutionary cycling is large, as some STDS may coevolve with female and male reproductive physiology, which may themselves coevolve. Although little information currently exists concerning the occurrence of STDS in wild birds, techniques for their identification are well established. This study raises a number of testable predictions about the consequences of STDS for avian reproductive biology, and I suggest that STDS should be considered as a potentially powerful factor in future studies of mate choice and sperm competition.
性传播疾病（STDs）涉及性选择理论当前的两个领域，即多次交配在决定个体繁殖成功方面的作用以及寄生虫在配偶选择中的作用，但在生态学文献中相对被忽视。我回顾了商业饲养鸟类种群中性传播疾病的发生情况，发现此类种群中存在致病性性传播疾病的广泛证据。性传播疾病可能对行为、生殖生理学以及一些第二性征的进化产生重要影响。在性传播疾病代价高昂的情况下，据推测它们会影响交配系统的进化，并通过对雌性生殖道敌意的选择，来解释受精后精子的高死亡率。共同进化循环的可能性很大，因为一些性传播疾病可能与雌性和雄性生殖生理学共同进化，而生殖生理学本身也可能共同进化。尽管目前关于野生鸟类中性传播疾病发生情况的信息很少，但它们的识别技术已经很成熟。这项研究提出了一些关于性传播疾病对鸟类生殖生物学影响的可检验预测，并且我认为在未来配偶选择和精子竞争的研究中，性传播疾病应被视为一个潜在的重要因素。
