Résumé
Although little studied in natural populations, the persistence of
immunoglobulins may dramatically affect the dynamics of immunity and the
ecology and evolution of host-pathogen interactions involving vertebrate
hosts. By means of a multiple-year vaccination design against Newcastle
disease virus, we experimentally addressed whether levels of specific
antibodies can persist over several years in females of a long-lived
procellariiform seabird—Cory’s shearwater—and whether maternal antibodies
against that antigen could persist over a long period in offspring several
years after the mother was exposed. We found that a single vaccination led
to high levels of antibodies for several years and that the females
transmitted antibodies to their offspring that persisted for several weeks
after hatching even 5 years after a single vaccination. The temporal
persistence of maternally transferred antibodies in nestlings was highly
dependent on the level at hatching. A second vaccination boosted
efficiently the level of antibodies in females and thus their transfer to
offspring. Overall, these results stress the need to consider the temporal
dynamics of immune responses if we are to understand the evolutionary
ecology of host-parasite interactions and trade-offs between immunity and
other life-history characteristics, in particular in long-lived species.
They also have strong implications for conservation when vaccination may
be used in natural populations facing disease threats.