Increased HL ratio might be an immunoregulatory effect of increased CORT, which has been shown in different physiological situations such as in response to immune challenge. Increased baseline CORT may be important to mobilize energy to support the metabolic increment during the postprandial period. Overall, we found that feeding modulates metabolic rates, CORT levels, and immune cell distribution in boas. We observed increased rates of oxygen consumption, plasma CORT levels, and HL ratio, along with a tendency of decreased stomach and intestine MEL in fed snakes compared to fasting ones. They commonly eat iguanas, lizards, birds, bats, and small. In captivity, a pet boa is usually fed frozen rodents who are thawed and warmed, but their diet also may include rabbits and even little chickens. A wild boa constrictor’s diet typically consists of mice, rats, bats, birds, lizards, and small mammals. corn snakes, various pythons, and various boa constrictors. The boa constricts many prey animals, the sizes of which depend on the current size of the boa. How large of an animal a boa constrictor can eat depends on its age and size. We measured the rates of oxygen consumption, plasma CORT levels, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio (HL ratio), plasma bacterial killing ability (BKA), and stomach and intestine MEL in fasting snakes and 48 h after meal intake. Since snakes eat entire prey whole, it is easier for their owners to feed them nutritionally. We divided juvenile males into two groups: fasting and fed with mice (30% of body mass). Here, we investigated the effects feeding have on hormonal and innate immune responses in the snake, Boa constrictor. However, little is known about the immune and hormonal regulation in response to feeding in other ectothermic vertebrates, especially snakes, in which the postprandial metabolic changes are pronounced. Feeding upregulates immune function and the systemic and local (gastrointestinal tract) concentrations of some immunoregulatory hormones, as corticosterone (CORT) and melatonin (MEL), in mammals and anurans.
0 kommentar(er)
