BYE BYE BIRDIE: A study suggests a weak immune response could drive pathogens toward greater virulence. MARIE READ
The paper
A.E. Fleming-Davies et al., “Incomplete host immunity favors the evolution of virulence in an emergent pathogen,” Science, 359:1030-33, 2018.
FINCH KILLER
Since 1994, an epidemic of conjunctivitis caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum has ravaged house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) populations across North America. Arietta Fleming-Davies and Dana Hawley, disease ecologists at the University of San Diego and Virginia Tech, respectively, noted that many birds that had been infected remained susceptible to later infection. The phenomenon reminded Fleming-Davies of findings by other researchers that when a vaccine partially protects a host, it can drive a pathogen to evolve more virulence. (See “Do Pathogens Gain Virulence as Hosts Become More Resistant?” The Scientist, October 2017.)
BIRD IN A CAGETo find out whether something similar was happening in finches, ...
