--- _id: '413' abstract: - lang: eng text: Being cared for when sick is a benefit of sociality that can reduce disease and improve survival of group members. However, individuals providing care risk contracting infectious diseases themselves. If they contract a low pathogen dose, they may develop low-level infections that do not cause disease but still affect host immunity by either decreasing or increasing the host’s vulnerability to subsequent infections. Caring for contagious individuals can thus significantly alter the future disease susceptibility of caregivers. Using ants and their fungal pathogens as a model system, we tested if the altered disease susceptibility of experienced caregivers, in turn, affects their expression of sanitary care behavior. We found that low-level infections contracted during sanitary care had protective or neutral effects on secondary exposure to the same (homologous) pathogen but consistently caused high mortality on superinfection with a different (heterologous) pathogen. In response to this risk, the ants selectively adjusted the expression of their sanitary care. Specifically, the ants performed less grooming and more antimicrobial disinfection when caring for nestmates contaminated with heterologous pathogens compared with homologous ones. By modulating the components of sanitary care in this way the ants acquired less infectious particles of the heterologous pathogens, resulting in reduced superinfection. The performance of risk-adjusted sanitary care reveals the remarkable capacity of ants to react to changes in their disease susceptibility, according to their own infection history and to flexibly adjust collective care to individual risk. article_processing_charge: No author: - first_name: Matthias full_name: Konrad, Matthias id: 46528076-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Konrad - first_name: Christopher full_name: Pull, Christopher id: 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Pull orcid: 0000-0003-1122-3982 - first_name: Sina full_name: Metzler, Sina id: 48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Metzler orcid: 0000-0002-9547-2494 - first_name: Katharina full_name: Seif, Katharina id: 90F7894A-02CF-11E9-976E-E38CFE5CBC1D last_name: Seif - first_name: Elisabeth full_name: Naderlinger, Elisabeth id: 31757262-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Naderlinger - first_name: Anna V full_name: Grasse, Anna V id: 406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Grasse - first_name: Sylvia full_name: Cremer, Sylvia id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Cremer orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868 citation: ama: Konrad M, Pull C, Metzler S, et al. Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care. PNAS. 2018;115(11):2782-2787. doi:10.1073/pnas.1713501115 apa: Konrad, M., Pull, C., Metzler, S., Seif, K., Naderlinger, E., Grasse, A. V., & Cremer, S. (2018). Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care. PNAS. National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713501115 chicago: Konrad, Matthias, Christopher Pull, Sina Metzler, Katharina Seif, Elisabeth Naderlinger, Anna V Grasse, and Sylvia Cremer. “Ants Avoid Superinfections by Performing Risk-Adjusted Sanitary Care.” PNAS. National Academy of Sciences, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713501115. ieee: M. Konrad et al., “Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care,” PNAS, vol. 115, no. 11. National Academy of Sciences, pp. 2782–2787, 2018. ista: Konrad M, Pull C, Metzler S, Seif K, Naderlinger E, Grasse AV, Cremer S. 2018. Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care. PNAS. 115(11), 2782–2787. mla: Konrad, Matthias, et al. “Ants Avoid Superinfections by Performing Risk-Adjusted Sanitary Care.” PNAS, vol. 115, no. 11, National Academy of Sciences, 2018, pp. 2782–87, doi:10.1073/pnas.1713501115. short: M. Konrad, C. Pull, S. Metzler, K. Seif, E. Naderlinger, A.V. Grasse, S. Cremer, PNAS 115 (2018) 2782–2787. date_created: 2018-12-11T11:46:20Z date_published: 2018-03-13T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2023-09-08T13:22:21Z day: '13' department: - _id: SyCr doi: 10.1073/pnas.1713501115 ec_funded: 1 external_id: isi: - '000427245400069' pmid: - '29463746' intvolume: ' 115' isi: 1 issue: '11' language: - iso: eng main_file_link: - open_access: '1' url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29463746 month: '03' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version page: 2782 - 2787 pmid: 1 project: - _id: 25DC711C-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425 call_identifier: FP7 grant_number: '243071' name: 'Social Vaccination in Ant Colonies: from Individual Mechanisms to Society Effects' publication: PNAS publication_status: published publisher: National Academy of Sciences publist_id: '7416' quality_controlled: '1' related_material: link: - description: News on IST Homepage relation: press_release url: https://ist.ac.at/en/news/helping-in-spite-of-risk-ants-perform-risk-averse-sanitary-care-of-infectious-nest-mates/ scopus_import: '1' status: public title: Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care type: journal_article user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1 volume: 115 year: '2018' ...