Seasonal variation of immune response to heterologous erythrocytes in natural populations of red-backed () and gray-sided () voles in Western Siberia.

We studied the seasonal variation of adaptive humoral immunity (AHI) in northern red-backed vole ( Pallas, 1779, RBV) and gray-sided vole ( Sundevall, 1846, GSV) in Tomsk region of Western Siberia. Immunoresponsiveness (IR) to sheep red blood cells was assessed by the number of antibody-producing cells in the spleen. The use of a generalized linear model to analyze the effects of species, sex, year of research, and season of withdrawal of individuals from nature on IR showed a significant effect of species identity, season of animal capture, and the interaction of species with season.