Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

Behavioral Immunity Suppresses An Epizootic In Caribbean Spiny Lobsters, Mark J. Butler Iv, Donald C. Behringer Jr., Thomas W. Dolan Iii, Jessica Moss, Jeffrey D. Shields

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Sociality has evolved in a wide range of animal taxa but infectious diseases spread rapidly in populations of aggregated individuals, potentially negating the advantages of their social interactions. To disengage from the coevolutionary struggle with pathogens, some hosts have evolved various forms of "behavioral immunity"; yet, the effectiveness of such behaviors in controlling epizootics in the wild is untested. Here we show how one form of behavioral immunity (i.e., the aversion of diseased conspecifics) practiced by Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) when subject to the socially transmitted PaV1 virus, appears to have prevented an epizootic over a large seascape. We …