Parasite infection in a central sensory organ of fish does not affect host personality

Ines Klemme, Raine Kortet and Anssi Karvonen

Behavioral Ecology, 2016, vol. 27, issue 5, 1533-1538

Abstract: Among the ecological factors acting on the evolution and expression of animal personalities and behavioral syndromes, parasitism has received comparatively little attention. However, infection and host behavior are often strongly intertwined, because host behavior can predict the risk of infection and can also be changed by an infection. We conducted a controlled experimental infection study to explore the effects of infection on host boldness, exploration and activity using rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and its trematode parasite Diplostomum pseudospathaceum, which infects a central sensory organ of the fish, the eye lens. Contrary to our expectation, infection did not change the within-individual consistency of the personality traits or the relationships between the traits, but infected individuals were less bold than uninfected control individuals. We also found no relationship between personality in uninfected fish and resistance against parasite infection, suggesting that behaviors which increase parasite encounter do not select for improved resistance. Thus, we found only weak support for parasite-mediated effects on animal personalities.

Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arw080 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:27:y:2016:i:5:p:1533-1538.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().