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No detected effect of moult on feather bacterial loads in mallards Anas platyrhynchos
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No detected effect of moult on feather bacterial loads in mallards Anas platyrhynchos
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No detected effect of moult on feather bacterial loads in mallards Anas platyrhynchos
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Journal Article
No detected effect of moult on feather bacterial loads in mallards Anas platyrhynchos
2010
Overview
Feathers play an important role in many aspects of avian life histories, for exampling acting in thermoregulation, communication and flight. Damaged feathers may reduce the ability to perform these functions, so there are likely fitness costs for individuals possessing damaged plumage. Recently, descriptive studies provided evidence that birds carry featherdegrading bacteria on their plumage. These bacteria have the ability to degrade feathers, rapidly under laboratory conditions, more slowly under field conditions. If such feather-degrading bacteria reduce avian fitness, natural selection should favour the evolution of anti-bacterial defences. Moult has been suggested as one such defence. Here we test this prediction with mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, and the use of repeated measures of total cultivable and feather-degrading bacterial loads on the same birds before, during and after moult. We found that moult had no significant effect on total cultivable and feather-degrading bacterial loads on feathers. Our results show that the bacterial contamination that takes place after moult overrides the potential role of moult as a mechanism to reduce feather bacterial loads.
