scholarly journals Inter-Individual Variation in Anti-Parasitic Egg Rejection Behavior: A Test of the Maternal Investment Hypothesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M E Hauber ◽  
M Abolins-Abols ◽  
C R Kim ◽  
R T Paitz
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Maternal Investment ◽  
Egg Yolk ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Egg Yolks ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Investment Hypothesis

Synopsis Hosts of avian brood parasites may reduce or forego the costs of caring for foreign young by rejecting parasitic eggs from the nest. Yet, many host species accept parasitic eggs and, even among rejecter species, some individuals go on to incubate and hatch them. The factors explaining the variation in egg rejection between species have received much theoretical and empirical attention, but the causes of intraspecific variation in different individuals’ propensity for accepting parasitic eggs are less well understood. Here we tested the maternal investment hypothesis, which predicts that hosts with costlier clutches will be more likely to reject parasitic eggs from their nest. We studied variation in the egg rejection responses of American robins (Turdus migratorius), a robust egg-rejecter host of the brood parasitic brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), to 3D-printed cowbird-sized eggs which were painted dark blue, a color known to induce variable and repeatable egg rejection responses in individual robins. Costlier clutch investment was estimated by earlier laying date, larger clutch size, heavier unincubated yolk mass, and variable yolk steroid hormone concentrations. There was no statistical support for most of our predictions. However, we detected more concentrated and greater overall amount of deoxycorticosterone deposited in egg yolks of rejecters relative to acceptors, although this accounted for no more than 14% of variance in the data. Future work should test experimentally the potential physiological linkage between maternal egg yolk steroid investment and egg rejection propensity in this and other host species of avian brood parasites.

scholarly journals The costs of avian brood parasitism explain variation in egg rejection behaviour in hosts

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 20150296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliana Medina ◽  
Naomi E. Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Avian Brood Parasitism ◽  
First Time ◽  
Rejection Rates

Many bird species can reject foreign eggs from their nests. This behaviour is thought to have evolved in response to brood parasites, birds that lay their eggs in the nest of other species. However, not all hosts of brood parasites evict parasitic eggs. In this study, we collate data from egg rejection experiments on 198 species, and perform comparative analyses to understand the conditions under which egg rejection evolves. We found evidence, we believe for the first time in a large-scale comparative analysis, that (i) non-current host species have rejection rates as high as current hosts, (ii) egg rejection is more likely to evolve when the parasite is relatively large compared with its host and (iii) egg rejection is more likely to evolve when the parasite chick evicts all the host eggs from the nest, such as in cuckoos. Our results suggest that the interactions between brood parasites and their hosts have driven the evolution of egg rejection and that variation in the costs inflicted by parasites is fundamental to explaining why only some host species evolve egg rejection.

Clutch variation and egg rejection in three hosts of the pallid cuckoo, Cuculus pallidus

Behaviour ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 147 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Langmore ◽  
Michelle Landstrom ◽  
Robert Heinsohn
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Rejection Rate ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Brood Parasite ◽  
Reflectance Spectrophotometry ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitised Host

AbstractIn theory, hosts of avian brood parasites would benefit by modifying their egg appearance in two ways to help identify mimetic foreign eggs: (i) by laying clutches that are more uniform in appearance and (ii) by laying clutches that differ from those of other females in the population. Support for these theories is inconsistent, and few studies have used objective measures of clutch variation. Here we used reflectance spectrophotometry to quantify within-clutch and between-clutch variation of three host species of an Australian brood parasite, the pallid cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus). We used egg-swapping experiments in which subjects were presented with either a conspecific egg or a heterospecific egg to compare the egg rejection responses of a frequently parasitised host, the white-plumed honeyeater (Lichenostomus penicillatus), with two less frequently parasitised hosts, dusky woodswallows (Artamus cyanopterus) and willie wagtails (Rhipidura leucophrys). As predicted, rejection rate increased as contrast between foreign egg and host clutch increased. Further, the major host showed greater between-clutch variation than the occasional hosts, and also rejected more similar-looking eggs. Contrary to predictions however, within-clutch variation was not lower in the major host, nor was it important in predicting the rejection rate of foreign eggs by the three host species.

scholarly journals Natural and artificial scents do not increase egg rejection rates of model brood parasitic eggs by American robins (Turdus migratorius)

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Erno Hauber
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Molothrus Ater ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Turdus Migratorius ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
American Robins ◽  
Tactile Cues ◽  
Do So ◽  
Rejection Rates

Hosts of obligate avian brood parasites can diminish or eliminate the costs of parasitism by rejecting foreign eggs from the nests. A vast literature demonstrates that visual and/or tactile cues can be used to recognize and reject natural or model eggs from the nests of diverse host species. However, data on olfaction-based potential egg recognition cues are both sparse and equivocal: experimentally-applied, naturally-relevant (heterospecific, including parasitic) scents do not appear to increase egg rejection rates in two host species, whereas unnatural scents (human and tobacco scents) do so in one host species. Here I assessed the predictions that (i) human handling of mimetically-painted model eggs would increase rejection rates, and (ii) applying unnatural or natural scents to mimetically or non-mimetically painted model eggs alters these eggs’ respective rejection rates relative to controls. I studied wild American Robins (Turdus migratorius), a robust rejecter species of the eggs of obligate brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). There was no statistical evidence to support either prediction, whereas poorer color-mimicry was still a predicted cause of greater egg rejection in this data set. Nonetheless, future studies could focus on this and other host species and using these and different methods to apply and maintain the scenting of model eggs to more directly test hosts’ use of potential olfactory cues in the foreign-egg rejection process.

scholarly journals Fate of Grackle (Quiscalus SPP.) Defenses in the Absence of Brood Parasitism: Implications for Long-Term Parasite-Host Coevolution

The Auk ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 1172-1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Peer ◽  
Spencer G. Sealy
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Selection Pressure ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Allopatric Population ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Cowbird Parasitism ◽  
The Common ◽  
Molothrus Aeneus

Abstract We tested grackles (Quiscalus spp.) to determine whether they retain egg rejection behavior in the absence of the selection pressure of brood parasitism. Neither Bronzed Cowbird (Molothrus aeneus) nor Brown-headed Cowbird (M. ater) parasitism was recorded in 797 Great-tailed Grackle (Q. mexicanus) nests. Cross-fostered Bronzed Cowbird nestlings, but not Brown-headed Cowbird nestlings, fledged from Great-tailed Grackle nests, indicating that Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism does not select for rejection in these grackles. Great-tailed Grackle populations sympatric and allopatric with Bronzed Cowbirds rejected 100% of model cowbird eggs. An allopatric population of Boat-tailed Grackle (Q. major), a sister species of the Great-tailed Grackle, also rejected 100% of model eggs. Egg rejection in the Boat-tailed Grackle has apparently been retained in the absence of parasitism for as long as 800,000 years since it split from the Great-tailed Grackle. The Common Grackle (Q. quiscula), which lays the most variable eggs among the grackles, also has the lowest level of egg rejection—which is consistent with the argument that it may have lost most of its rejection behavior in the absence of parasitism. With extreme intraclutch egg-variation, Common Grackles may be more likely to reject their own oddly colored eggs, which would select against rejection behavior in the absence of parasitism. Those results have significant implications for long-term parasite-host coevolution, because they suggest that egg rejection has been retained in most species of Quiscalus in the absence of parasitism. If typical of the world's avifauna, such retention may force brood parasites to specialize on a few host species and to rarely return to using old hosts, which would readily reject their eggs.

scholarly journals Visual acuity and egg spatial chromatic contrast predict egg rejection behavior of American robins

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (20) ◽  
pp. jeb229609
Author(s):  
Alec B. Luro ◽  
Esteban Fernández-Juricic ◽  
Patrice Baumhardt ◽  
Mark E. Hauber
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Chromatic Contrast ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
American Robins ◽  
Avian Visual System ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACTColor and spatial vision is critical for recognition and discrimination tasks affecting fitness, including finding food and mates, and recognizing offspring. For example, as a counter defense to avoid the cost of raising the unrelated offspring of obligate interspecific avian brood parasites, many host species routinely view, recognize and remove the foreign egg(s) from their nests. Recent research has shown that host species visually attend to both chromatic and spatial pattern features of eggs; yet how hosts simultaneously integrate these features together when recognizing eggs remains an open question. Here, we tested egg rejection responses of American robins (Turdus migratorius) using a range of 3D-printed model eggs covered with blue and yellow checkered patterns differing in relative square sizes. We predicted that robins would reject a model egg if they could visually resolve the blue and yellow squares as separate features, or accept it if the squares blended together and appeared similar in color to the natural blue–green color of robin eggs as perceived by the avian visual system. As predicted, the probability of robins rejecting a model egg increased with greater sizes of its blue and yellow squares. Our results suggest that chromatic visual acuity and viewing distance have the potential to limit the ability of a bird to recognize a foreign egg in its nest, thus providing a limitation to host egg recognition that obligate interspecific avian brood parasites may exploit.

scholarly journals Visual acuity and egg spatial chromatic contrast predict egg rejection behavior of American robins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alec B. Luro ◽  
Esteban Fernández-Juricic ◽  
Patrice Baumhardt ◽  
Mark E. Hauber
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Chromatic Contrast ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
American Robins ◽  
Avian Visual System ◽  
The Cost

AbstractColor and spatial vision are critical for recognition and discrimination tasks affecting fitness, including finding food and mates and recognizing offspring. For example, as a counter defense to avoid the cost of raising the unrelated offspring of obligate interspecific avian brood parasites, many host species routinely view, recognize, and remove the foreign egg(s) from their nests. Recent research has shown that host species visually attend to both chromatic and spatial pattern features of eggs; yet how hosts simultaneously integrate these features together when recognizing eggs remains an open question. Here, we tested egg rejection responses of American robins (Turdus migratorius) using a range of 3D-printed model eggs covered with blue and yellow checkered patterns differing in relative square sizes. We predicted that robins would reject a model egg if they could visually resolve the blue and yellow squares as separate features or accept it if the squares blended together and appeared similar in color to the natural blue-green color of robin eggs as perceived by the avian visual system. As predicted, the probability of robins rejecting a model egg increased with greater sizes of its blue and yellow squares. Our results suggest that chromatic visual acuity and viewing distance have the potential to limit the ability of a bird to recognize a foreign egg in its nest, thus providing a limitation to host egg recognition that obligate interspecific avian brood parasites may exploit.

Nest illumination and the evolution of egg rejection in hosts of brood parasites

The Auk ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliana Medina ◽  
Naomi E Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Host Defenses ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Light Levels ◽  
Main Host ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
High Rejection ◽  
Rejection Rates

ABSTRACT Hosts of avian brood parasites, such as cuckoos, are duped into taking care of a foreign chick and this has led to the evolution of host defenses, such as egg rejection. However, many host species are not egg rejecters and it has been suggested that poor illumination inside closed nests may constrain the evolution of this defense. In this study, we experimentally increased the light inside the dome nests of Yellow-Rumped Thornbills, the main host of the Shining Bronze-Cuckoo. Our results show that rejection events did not increase significantly when nests were brighter, although there is a possibility that rejection mistakes could decrease. Moreover, we found that natural light levels inside dome nests were highly variable, and in many cases as high as those in cup-nesting species with high rejection rates. This evidence suggests that rapid changes in nest illumination do not alter rejection behavior.

scholarly journals PSVIII-2 Antibody yield for polyclonal egg yolk antibody (IgY) production in laying hens

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. 252-253
Author(s):  
Cherrie Nolden ◽  
Abbey Grisham ◽  
Dan Schaefer ◽  
Matt Akins ◽  
Mark Cook
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Laying Hens ◽  
Egg Yolk ◽  
Interleukin 10 ◽  
Cpg Odn ◽  
Slow Decline ◽  
Egg Yolks ◽  
Egg Yolk Antibody ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Phosphate Buffered Saline

Abstract Antibody production in egg yolks of immunized laying hens is an alternative to conventional mammalian production. Antibody yield peak and duration have not been described for immunoglobulin Y technology using Freund’s incomplete adjuvant (FIA) and C-phosphate-guanosine oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODN) without the inclusion of Freund’s complete adjuvant for enhancing the immune response to an interleukin-10 (IL-10) peptide. This study sought to describe the antibody titer production for an 8 amino acid sequence from the surface of the bovine IL-10 protein (VMPQAENG) as the antigen emulsified with CpG-ODN and FIA in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). 60 hens were assigned to receive the complete vaccine (Peptide), 20 received the vaccine without the IL-10 peptide (Control), and 8 received a PBS injection (Blank). Hens were immunized with 0.25 mL in 4 locations, each breast and each thigh on days 1, 15 and 29. The complete vaccine delivered 0.6 mg IL-10 peptide, 8 µg CpG-ODN, and 0.33 mL FIA per hen on each vaccination day. Eggs were collected regularly until 175 days after the first immunization and the anti IL-10 peptide activities of the yolk were determined by ELISA. Egg titers by treatment were analyzed with a repeated measures ANOVA in SAS. The supplementation of FIA with CpG-ODN produced high titers, of over 100 µg of antibody per mL of yolk (µg Ab/mL yolk), around day 33 through day 76, with a slow decline through day 175 when average titers remained above 40 µg Ab/mL yolk. Peptide egg titers were significantly higher than Blank or Control titers from day 31 though day 175 (P < 0.0001). Titers recovered from Marcq et al. (2015) with similar methods were 1.5 to 7 times lower than these results over the same number of days.

scholarly journals Arthrospira Platensis (Spirulina) Supplementation on Laying Hens’ Performance: Eggs Physical, Chemical, and Sensorial Qualities

Foods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omri ◽  
Amraoui ◽  
Tarek ◽  
Lucarini ◽  
Durazzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Laying Hens ◽  
Control Diet ◽  
Dietary Supplementation ◽  
Basal Diet ◽  
Egg Yolk ◽  
Arthrospira Platensis ◽  
Cholesterol Concentration ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Egg Yolks ◽  
The Impact

The present study evaluated the effects of dietary supplementation of spirulina on laying hens’ performances: Eggs’ physical, chemical, and sensorial qualities. A total of 45 Lohman White hens, 44 weeks of age, were randomized into 3 groups of 15 birds. Hens were given 120 g/d of a basal diet containing 0% (control), 1.5%, and 2.5% of spirulina for 6 weeks. Albumen height and consequently Haugh unit were significantly affected by dietary supplementation of spirulina (p < 0.05) and by weeks on diet (p < 0.05). This supplement did not affect (p > 0.05) egg yolk weight or height. However, spirulina increased egg yolk redness (a*) from 1.33 (C) to 12.67 (D1) and 16.19 (D2) and reduced (p < 0.05) the yellowness (b*) parameter from 62.1(C) to 58.17 (D1) and 55.87 (D2). Egg yolks from hens fed spirulina were darker, more red, and less yellow in color than egg yolks from hens fed the control-diet (p < 0.0001). However, spirulina did not affect (p > 0.05) egg yolks’ total cholesterol concentration. In conclusion, a significant enhancement of egg yolk color was found in response to spirulina supplementation. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the impact of spirulina on egg yolks’ fatty acids profile.

scholarly journals Host density predicts the probability of parasitism by avian brood parasites

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1769) ◽  
pp. 20180204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliana Medina ◽  
Naomi E. Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Host Density ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitism Rates ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
First Time ◽  
Determining Factor

The spatial distribution of hosts can be a determining factor in the reproductive success of parasites. Highly aggregated hosts may offer more opportunities for reproduction but can have better defences than isolated hosts. Here we connect macro- and micro-evolutionary processes to understand the link between host density and parasitism, using avian brood parasites as a model system. We analyse data across more than 200 host species using phylogenetic comparative analyses and quantify parasitism rate and host reproductive success in relation to spatial distribution using field data collected on one host species over 6 years. Our comparative analysis reveals that hosts occurring at intermediate densities are more likely to be parasitized than colonial or widely dispersed hosts. Correspondingly, our intraspecific field data show that individuals living at moderate densities experience higher parasitism rates than individuals at either low or high densities. Moreover, we show for the first time that the effect of host density on host reproductive success varies according to the intensity of parasitism; hosts have greater reproductive success when living at high densities if parasitism rates are high, but fare better at low densities when parasitism rates are low. We provide the first evidence of the trade-off between host density and parasitism at both macro- and micro-evolutionary scales in brood parasites. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.

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