Does exploratory behavior or activity in a wild mouse explain susceptibility to virus infection?

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dc.contributor.authorBroecke, B. V.
dc.contributor.authorBorremans, B.
dc.contributor.authorMariën, J.
dc.contributor.authorMakundi, R. H .
dc.contributor.authorMassawe, A. W.
dc.contributor.authorHughes, N. K.
dc.contributor.authorLeirsa, H.
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-16T06:25:38Z
dc.date.available2018-07-16T06:25:38Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.descriptionCurrent Zoology ,2017.en_US
dc.description.abstractExploration and activity are often described as trade-offs between the fitness benefits of gathering information and resources, and the potential costs of increasing exposure to predators and parasites. More exploratory individuals are predicted to have higher rates of parasitism, but this relationship has rarely been examined for virus infections in wild populations. Here, we used the multimammate mouse Mastomys natalensis to investigate the relationship between exploration, activity, and infection with Morogoro virus (MORV). We characterized individual exploratory behavior (open field and novel object tests) and activity (trap diversity), and quantified the relationship between these traits and infection status using linear regression. We found that M. natalensis expresses consistent individual differences, or personality types, in exploratory behavior (repeatability of 0.30, 95% CI: 0.21–0.36). In addition, we found a significant contrasting effect of age on exploration and activity where juveniles display higher exploration levels than adults, but lower field-activity. There was however no statistical evidence for a behavioral syndrome between these 2 traits. Contrary to our expectations, we found no correlation between MORV infection status and exploratory behavior or activity, which suggests that these behaviors may not increase exposure probability to MORV infection. This would further imply that variation in viral infection between individuals is not affected by between-individual variation in exploration and activity.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1674-5507
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/2522
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherCurrent Zoologyen_US
dc.subjectMorogoro virusen_US
dc.subjectMastomys natalensisen_US
dc.subjectExplorationen_US
dc.subjectDisease ecologyen_US
dc.subjectArenavirusen_US
dc.subjectAnimal personalityen_US
dc.titleDoes exploratory behavior or activity in a wild mouse explain susceptibility to virus infection?en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.urlhttps://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zox053en_US

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