PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kelsey R. Moreno
AU  - Maya Weinberg
AU  - Lee Harten
AU  - Valeria B. Salinas Ramos
AU  - L. Gerardo Herrera M.
AU  - Gábor Á. Czirják
AU  - Yossi Yovel
TI  - Sick Bats Stay Home Alone: Social distancing during the acute phase response in Egyptian fruit bats (<em>Rousettus aegyptiacus</em>)
AID  - 10.1101/2020.07.06.189357
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.07.06.189357
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/25/2020.07.06.189357.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/25/2020.07.06.189357.full
AB  - Along with its many advantages, social roosting imposes a major risk of pathogen transmission. How social animals, and especially free-ranging mammals, reduce this risk is poorly documented. We used lipopolysaccharide injection to imitate bacterial sickness in both a captive and a free-ranging colony of an extremely social, long lived mammal – the Egyptian fruit bat. We monitored behavioral and physiological responses using an arsenal of methods, including on-board GPS and acceleration, video, temperature and weight measurements, and blood samples. Sick-like bats exhibited an increased immune response, as well as classical illness symptoms including fever, weight loss, anorexia, and lethargy. Notably, they also isolated themselves from the group by leaving the social cluster and avoiding contact. Free-ranging individuals ceased foraging outdoors for at least two nights. Together, these sickness behaviors demonstrate a strong, integrative immune response which promotes recovery of infected individuals while protecting their group members from transmission of pathogens, and at the same time, reducing spillover events outside the roost.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.