Relationship between avian growth rate and immune response depends on food availability

Abstract

Life history theory predicts that when resources are limited growing organisms are likely to trade an immune response for competing demands of growth. To test this we examined the effect of energy intake on body mass increments and an immune response in hand-reared sand martin (Riparia riparia) nestlings. We subjected the nestlings to three different feeding regimes, mimicking the range of food availability in the wild, and then evaluated nestlings' immune response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). Direction of correlation between the magnitude of PHA-induced swelling response and body mass increments depended on food availability: it was negative when food was scarce and positive when resources were plentiful. There was no significant correlation between the two traits under intermediate feeding conditions. We conclude that the relative cost of immune function in young birds depends on food availability and, therefore, may be modified by external factors such as weather conditions or hatching asynchrony.