Anthropogenic food provisioning and immune phenotype: Association among supplemental food, body condition, and immunological parameters in urban environments.

ABSTRACT: Direct or indirect supplemental feeding of free-ranging animals occurs worldwide, resulting in significant impacts on population density or altered demographic processes. Another potential impact of increased energy intake from supplemental feeding is altered immunocompetence. As immune system maintenance is energetically costly, there may be trade-offs between immune responses and other energy-demanding physiological processes in individual animals. Although increased availability of food sources through supplemental feeding is expected to increase the overall immunocompetence of animals, empirical data verifying the association between supplemental feeding and different immune parameters are lacking. Understanding the potential influence of supplemental feeding on immune phenotypes is cr

SUBMITTER: Hwang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5838038 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature