Effects of antihelminthic treatment on cell-mediated immunity in Gentoo penguin chicks

BERTELLOTTI, M.; D´AMICO, V.; PALACIOS, M. G.; BARBOSA, A.; CORIA, N.

POLAR BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2015

0722-4060

Intestinalparasites suppose a cost to hosts astheycompete directly for nutritional resources. Therefore,hostsmust defend themselves against intestinal parasitesbymounting an immune response. Many penguin speciesacquireparasites through their diet and transfer these par-asitesto their chicks when feeding them. High parasiteloadsin penguin chicks could have effects on their growthandbody condition, and ultimately on their survival. Here,weevaluated the effect of parasites on the cell-mediatedimmunesystem in Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelispapua)chicksat Stranger Point (25 de Mayo/King George Island,SouthShetland Islands). To this end, 12 chicks wereexperimentallydeparasitized with a mixture of anthel-minthicdrugs (albendazole and praziquantel), whereas 10otherswere kept as control. We measured cutaneous cell-mediatedimmunity in response to immunization withphytohemagglutinin(PHA). We also analyzed the leuko-cyteprofile in both treated and control groups before andafterthe treatment. After the treatment, deparasitized birdsshowedlarger foot-web swelling in response to PHAinjectionthan control birds. Deparasitized penguins alsoshowedlower eosinophil and monocyte counts than con-trols,whereas heterophils, lymphocytes, and total whitebloodcell counts did not differ between groups. Our resultssuggestthat Gentoo penguin chicks parasitized withintestinalparasites suffer a cost in terms of reduced cell-mediatedimmune responses that could ultimately affecttheir survival.