Exposure of black-legged kittiwakes to Lyme disease spirochetes: dynamics of the immune status of adult hosts and effects on their survival.

摘要: Summary 1. Despite a growing interest in wildlife disease ecology, there is surprising lack of knowledge about the exposure dynamics individual animals to naturally circulating infectious agents and impact such on host life-history traits. 2. The exploration these questions requires detailed longitudinal data that can be captured multiple times during their life but also being able account for several sources uncertainty, notably partial observation or recapture individuals at each sampling occasion. 3. We use multi-year dataset (i) assess potential effect tick-borne agent Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl), adult apparent survival one its natural long-lived hosts, Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), (ii) investigate temporal immunological status kittiwakes infer rate new persistence immune response. Using multi-event modelling approach, uncertainties arising from observations were explicitly taken into account. 4. The Bbsl was evaluated via an experimental approach: group breeding birds treated with antibiotic compared control group. 5. No detected kittiwakes, either observational data. 6. An annual seroconversion (from negative positive) 1·5% estimated, once became seropositive, it remained so probability 1, suggesting detectable levels anti-Bbsl antibodies persist years. 7. These results, combination patterns tick vector Bbsl, provide important information understanding spatio-temporal nature interaction between this parasites. Furthermore, our analyses highlight utility capture–mark–recapture approaches handling state uncertainty ecology studies.