Social behavior is influenced by a host of factors, including the immune system; for example, song quality in male starlings predicts immunocompetence suggesting the development of the immune system is interconnected with aspects social development (Duffy and Ball, 2002). Treating birds with antibiotics during the perinatal period may alter this development, and thereby, social behaviors beyond song. We asked if antibiotic exposure during the perinatal period effected parenting and offspring social behavior (e.g. aggressive and affiliative behaviors) in zebra finches? We treated the drinking water of zebra finch parents and hatchlings from post-hatch day 5–14 with azithromycin or a vehicle control and monitored parenting/social behavior. After weaning, we transferred offspring from the breeding cage to group housing and monitored social behavior and integration into the colony by measuring aggressive and affiliative behaviors. For all treatments we saw a reduction in the number of songs performed by fathers, however, specifically for antibiotic treated offspring there was a reduction in affiliative behaviors relative to vehicle treated controls suggesting the immune system, perhaps via the guts microbiome, influences certain aspects of social behaviors in birds.

社会行为受到许多因素的影响，包括免疫系统；例如，雄性椋鸟的歌曲质量可预测免疫能力，这表明免疫系统的发育与社会发展的各个方面相互关联（Duffy 和 Ball，2002）。在围产期用抗生素治疗鸟类可能会改变这种发展，从而改变歌曲以外的社会行为。我们询问围产期抗生素暴露是否会影响斑胸草雀的养育和后代社会行为（例如攻击性和亲和性行为）？我们在孵化后第 5-14 天用阿奇霉素或载体控制处理斑胸草雀父母和幼雏的饮用水，并监测育儿/社会行为。断奶后，我们将后代从繁殖笼转移到群体住房，并通过测量攻击性和从属行为来监测社会行为和融入群体。对于所有治疗，我们看到父亲演奏的歌曲数量减少，然而，特别是对于抗生素治疗的后代，相对于载体治疗的对照，亲和行为减少，这表明免疫系统，可能通过肠道微生物组，影响某些方面鸟类的社会行为。