--- _id: '732' abstract: - lang: eng text: 'Background: Social insects form densely crowded societies in environments with high pathogen loads, but have evolved collective defences that mitigate the impact of disease. However, colony-founding queens lack this protection and suffer high rates of mortality. The impact of pathogens may be exacerbated in species where queens found colonies together, as healthy individuals may contract pathogens from infectious co-founders. Therefore, we tested whether ant queens avoid founding colonies with pathogen-exposed conspecifics and how they might limit disease transmission from infectious individuals. Results: Using Lasius Niger queens and a naturally infecting fungal pathogen Metarhizium brunneum, we observed that queens were equally likely to found colonies with another pathogen-exposed or sham-treated queen. However, when one queen died, the surviving individual performed biting, burial and removal of the corpse. These undertaking behaviours were performed prophylactically, i.e. targeted equally towards non-infected and infected corpses, as well as carried out before infected corpses became infectious. Biting and burial reduced the risk of the queens contracting and dying from disease from an infectious corpse of a dead co-foundress. Conclusions: We show that co-founding ant queens express undertaking behaviours that, in mature colonies, are performed exclusively by workers. Such infection avoidance behaviours act before the queens can contract the disease and will therefore improve the overall chance of colony founding success in ant queens.' article_number: '219' article_processing_charge: Yes article_type: original author: - first_name: Christopher full_name: Pull, Christopher id: 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Pull orcid: 0000-0003-1122-3982 - first_name: Sylvia full_name: Cremer, Sylvia id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Cremer orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868 citation: ama: Pull C, Cremer S. Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 2017;17(1). doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1062-4 apa: Pull, C., & Cremer, S. (2017). Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour. BMC Evolutionary Biology. BioMed Central. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-017-1062-4 chicago: Pull, Christopher, and Sylvia Cremer. “Co-Founding Ant Queens Prevent Disease by Performing Prophylactic Undertaking Behaviour.” BMC Evolutionary Biology. BioMed Central, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-017-1062-4. ieee: C. Pull and S. Cremer, “Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour,” BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 17, no. 1. BioMed Central, 2017. ista: Pull C, Cremer S. 2017. Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17(1), 219. mla: Pull, Christopher, and Sylvia Cremer. “Co-Founding Ant Queens Prevent Disease by Performing Prophylactic Undertaking Behaviour.” BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 17, no. 1, 219, BioMed Central, 2017, doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1062-4. short: C. Pull, S. Cremer, BMC Evolutionary Biology 17 (2017). date_created: 2018-12-11T11:48:12Z date_published: 2017-10-13T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2023-09-28T11:31:32Z day: '13' ddc: - '576' - '592' department: - _id: SyCr doi: 10.1186/s12862-017-1062-4 ec_funded: 1 external_id: isi: - '000412816800001' file: - access_level: open_access checksum: 3e24a2cfd48f49f7b3643d08d30fb480 content_type: application/pdf creator: system date_created: 2018-12-12T10:17:18Z date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:47:55Z file_id: '5271' file_name: IST-2017-882-v1+1_12862_2017_Article_1062.pdf file_size: 949857 relation: main_file file_date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:47:55Z has_accepted_license: '1' intvolume: ' 17' isi: 1 issue: '1' language: - iso: eng month: '10' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version 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: BMC Evolutionary Biology publication_identifier: issn: - '14712148' publication_status: published publisher: BioMed Central publist_id: '6937' pubrep_id: '882' quality_controlled: '1' related_material: record: - id: '819' relation: dissertation_contains status: public scopus_import: '1' status: public title: Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour tmp: image: /images/cc_by.png legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) short: CC BY (4.0) type: journal_article user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1 volume: 17 year: '2017' ...