DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tht76hdxx
title: Friend virus virulence and reproduction data for wild-derived male house mice competing in semi-natural populations

description: Social status in social animals, including humans, is considered a major
 determinant of overall health and susceptibility to disease. There is
 considerable evidence that these effects extend to the standing immune
 profile and that social status directly influences susceptibility to
 pathogens. However, the mechanistic underpinnings that link infectious
 disease and social status remain difficult to disentangle from associated
 factors. Here we examined the association between dominance status in male
 wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus) and susceptibility to Friend virus
 complex in the context of semi-natural populations with high male-male
 competition and no predation. These enclosures resemble house mouse
 environments, which have been associated with human architecture since the
 dawn of agriculture. Such conditions were achieved with large indoor
 enclosures designed to allow remote monitoring and to encourage mice to
 compete over optimal territories. Due to an interruption in our facility’s
 heating system, we were unexpectedly presented with the opportunity to
 assess how reduced temperature influences the association of social status
 and pathogen susceptibility. We found that pathogen virulence and
 reproduction were significantly lower in socially dominant hosts compared
 to non-dominant hosts. Interestingly, when temperature was reduced
 dominant and non-dominant males experienced similar levels of virulence
 and viral reproduction. While several hypotheses are considered, these
 insights may illuminate a new method of experimental manipulation to
 modify competitive intensity. If confirmed, future experiments may help
 elucidate the mechanistic underpinnings between social status and disease
 in the best studied and economical mammalian model available to science.
description: See preprint methods for
 methological details beyond the useage notes below.
description: Below is a discription of each column header. This discribes
 to all factors included or exclude in the analysis of FVC virolence and
 its association to male social status in house mice in the paper titled:
 "Male mouse social status is associated with Friend virus virulence
 and reproduction in semi-natural populations". id - is a unique identifier of
 each mouse in our colony and this data set pit - the
 last 4 or 5 digits of the passive integrated transponder tag used to
 assign dominance. These tags were extracted at dissection, cleaned and
 re-loaded, thus are not unique and used up to 3 times each
 pen - six pen ids that correspond to the six replicate
 enclosures. This column is redundant with "replicateName"
 below. tempFactor - our facility experienced a
 disruption in the HVAC system during two of these replicates. This factors
 specifies which mice were under cool or warm conditions.
 sex - All animals included are male. birthDate
 - birth date of each animal.  ageAtEntry - the dration
 between birth date and entry date provides the age of each animal at
 enclosure entry. birthCage - generation corresponds to
 the letter and mother father pairs to the numbers. Two brothers were
 selcted among litters and split among two replicates. Some of these cages
 provided a second litter in a future replicate.
 litterNumber - 47 litter IDs infectionType -
 all animals were infected with Friend virus complex
 replicateName - six numarical ids that correspond to the six
 replicate enclosures. This column is redundant with "pen"
 above. entryMass - body mass in grams of the animal
 immediately prior to release it respective enclosures
 infectionMass - body mass in grams of the animal at infection, 12
 full days affer entry. deadMass - body mass in grams of
 the animal at euthanasia (day 25), after 12 days of infection, 24 full
 days after entry. deadDate - date animal was euthanized
 or found dead. deathCondition - Whether or not the
 early death was confirmed to be associated witha a spleen rupture. Blank
 indicates euthanasia at experiments end. daysInfected -
 days until event (death) since the animal was infected (used for
 survivorship analysis). entryDate - date of enclosure
 release. infectionDate - date of capture infection and
 re-release socialCondition - dominance status prior to
 infection as measured by &gt;80% pittag occupancy atleast the three
 weeks prior. FV_load - proviral load of the FMuLV
 genome per host genome out of cells from homogenized infected
 spleens SFFV_load - proviral load of the SFFV genome
 per host genome out of cells from homogenized infected spleens
 spleenMass - the absolute mass of the animal's whole blood
 laden spleen at dissection