Kyle K Koller, Meredith E Kernbach, Darrys Reese, Thomas R Unnasch, Lynn B Martin
AbstractSeasonality in infectious disease prevalence is predominantly attributed to changes in exogenous risk factors. For vectored pathogens, high abundance, activity, and/or diversity of vectors can exacerbate disease risk for hosts. Conversely, many host defenses, particularly immune responses, are seasonally variable. Seasonality in host defenses has been attributed, in part, to the proximate (i.e., metabolic) and ultimate (i.e., reproductive fitness) costs of defense. In this study, our goal was to discern whether any seasonality is observable in how a common avian host, the house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ), copes with a common zoonotic arbovirus, the West Nile virus (WNV), when hosts are studied under controlled conditions...
2023: Physiological and Biochemical Zoology: PBZ