Song and immunological condition in male barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) |
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Authors: | Saino Nicola; Galeotti Paolo; Sacchi Roberto; Moller Anders Pape |
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Institution: | aDipartimento di Biologia, Sez. Zoologia Scienze Naturali, Università di Milanco Via Celoria 26, I-20133 Milano, Italy
bDipartimento di Biologia Animale, Università di Pavia Piazza Botta 9, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
cLaboratoire d'Ecologie, CNRS URA 258, Universitè Pierre et Marie Curie 7 quai St. Bernard, Case 237, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France |
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Abstract: | Male secondary sexual characters may have evolved as intra-or intersexual signals of male phenotypic or genetic quality.In birds, singing performance may have the function to honestlyreveal health and vigor of individual males. Infectious diseasesand poor body conditions would therefore be expected to negativelyinfluence singing performance. Since bird pathogens are knownto elicit both a humoral and a cell-mediated immune response,it can be predicted that a negative relationship exists betweensinging performance and activity of the immune system. Thisprediction was tested for the first time in this correlationalstudy. The relationships between song rate and features andhematological variables (concentration of leukocytes in peripheralblood, ratio of gamma-globulins to total plasma proteins, bloodcell sedimentation rate, hematocrit) and body condition wereanalyzed in a population of bam swallows (Hirundo rustica).Song rate was negatively correlated with lymphocyte concentrationand with the ratio of gamma-globulins to plasma proteins. Spectrographicanalysis showed that features of song were not significantlycorrelated with hematological variables or body condition. Thelevel of circulating testosterone was not correlated with songrate nor hematological variables. This study is the first toshow a correlation between a bird's singing performance andhematological profile and suggests that song rate of male barnswallows may reflect their health status. Song in this speciesmight thus have evolved because it allows prospecting femalesto assess aspects of phenotypic and/or genetic quality of potentialmates |
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Keywords: | body condition gamma globulins hematocrit Hirundo rustica leukocytes song quality song rate |
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