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Preen gland removal increases plumage bacterial load but not that of feather-degrading bacteria

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Abstract

The preen gland is a holocrine sebaceous gland of the avian integument which produces an oily secretion that is spread on the plumage during preening. It has been suggested that birds may defend themselves against feather-degrading bacteria (FDB) and other potential pathogens using preen gland secretions. However, besides some in vitro studies, the in vivo bacterial inhibitory effects of the preen oil on the abundance of feather-associated bacterial species has not yet been studied in passerines. Here we tested the effect of gland removal on the abundance of FDB and other-cultivable bacterial loads (OCB) of male house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Our results did not support earlier results on in vitro antibacterial activity of preen oil against FDB since the absence of the preen gland did not significantly affect their loads related to the control birds. In contrast, we found that preen gland removal led to higher loads of OCB. This result suggests that the antimicrobial spectrum of the preen oil is broader than previously thought and that, by reducing the overall feather bacterial loads, the preen gland could help birds to protect themselves against a variety of potentially harmful bacteria.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Saria Industries Bretagne S.A.S. France for kindly providing the hydrolyzed feather meal used in this study, and Gábor and Klára Czirják for providing food for the birds. Richard K. Simpson kindly corrected our English. This project was financially supported by a French research grant from the ANR to PH and Marcel M. Lambrechts (ANR-05, NT05-3_42075), an Eiffel grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to GÁC, a research grant (CEEX ET #94/2006) of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research to PLP, a PhD scholarship from the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture to CIV, and a PhD scholarship from the French Government to MG. The research was supported by the “Laboratoire d’Excellence” TULIP (ANR-10-LABX-41). We thank three anonymous reviewers who provided constructive criticism to an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Mathieu Giraudeau

    Present address: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA

  2. Pascal Mirleau

    Present address: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale (IMBE), UMR-CNRS 7263, UMR-IRD 237, Université d’Aix-Marseille, Faculté des Sciences, Pôle de l’Etoile, Av. Escadrille Normandie-Niemen, 13397, Marseille Cedex 20, France

  3. Gábor Árpád Czirják

    Present address: Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)–Ecole Nationale de Formation Agronomique (ENFA)–Université Paul Sabatier (UPS), 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Gábor Árpád Czirják, Mathieu Giraudeau, Pascal Mirleau & Philipp Heeb

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Mănăştur Street 3-5, 400372, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Gábor Árpád Czirják

  3. Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Clinicilor Street 5-7, 400006, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Péter László Pap & Csongor István Vágási

  4. Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032, Debrecen, Hungary

    Csongor István Vágási

  5. Emergency Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Mănăştur Street 3-5, 400372, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Cosmin Mureşan

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  1. Gábor Árpád Czirják
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  2. Péter László Pap
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Correspondence to Gábor Árpád Czirják.

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Communicated by: Alexandre Roulin

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Czirják, G.Á., Pap, P.L., Vágási, C.I. et al. Preen gland removal increases plumage bacterial load but not that of feather-degrading bacteria. Naturwissenschaften 100, 145–151 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-1005-2

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