---
_id: '7513'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'Social insects (i.e., ants, termites and the social bees and wasps) protect
    their colonies from disease using a combination of individual immunity and collectively
    performed defenses, termed social immunity. The first line of social immune defense
    is sanitary care, which is performed by colony members to protect their pathogen-exposed
    nestmates from developing an infection. If sanitary care fails and an infection
    becomes established, a second line of social immune defense is deployed to stop
    disease transmission within the colony and to protect the valuable queens, which
    together with the males are the reproductive individuals of the colony. Insect
    colonies are separated into these reproductive individuals and the sterile worker
    force, forming a superorganismal reproductive unit reminiscent of the differentiated
    germline and soma in a multicellular organism. Ultimately, the social immune response
    preserves the germline of the superorganism insect colony and increases overall
    fitness of the colony in case of disease. '
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Sylvia
  full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
  id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Cremer
  orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
- first_name: Megan
  full_name: Kutzer, Megan
  id: 29D0B332-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Kutzer
  orcid: 0000-0002-8696-6978
citation:
  ama: 'Cremer S, Kutzer M. Social immunity. In: Choe J, ed. <i>Encyclopedia of Animal
    Behavior</i>. 2nd ed. Elsevier; 2019:747-755. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0">10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0</a>'
  apa: Cremer, S., &#38; Kutzer, M. (2019). Social immunity. In J. Choe (Ed.), <i>Encyclopedia
    of Animal Behavior</i> (2nd ed., pp. 747–755). Elsevier. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0">https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0</a>
  chicago: Cremer, Sylvia, and Megan Kutzer. “Social Immunity.” In <i>Encyclopedia
    of Animal Behavior</i>, edited by Jae Choe, 2nd ed., 747–55. Elsevier, 2019. <a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0">https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0</a>.
  ieee: S. Cremer and M. Kutzer, “Social immunity,” in <i>Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior</i>,
    2nd ed., J. Choe, Ed. Elsevier, 2019, pp. 747–755.
  ista: 'Cremer S, Kutzer M. 2019.Social immunity. In: Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior.
    , 747–755.'
  mla: Cremer, Sylvia, and Megan Kutzer. “Social Immunity.” <i>Encyclopedia of Animal
    Behavior</i>, edited by Jae Choe, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2019, pp. 747–55, doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0">10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0</a>.
  short: S. Cremer, M. Kutzer, in:, J. Choe (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior,
    2nd ed., Elsevier, 2019, pp. 747–755.
date_created: 2020-02-23T23:00:36Z
date_published: 2019-02-06T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-09-08T11:12:04Z
day: '06'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90721-0
edition: '2'
editor:
- first_name: Jae
  full_name: Choe, Jae
  last_name: Choe
external_id:
  isi:
  - '000248989500026'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '02'
oa_version: None
page: 747-755
publication: Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior
publication_identifier:
  eisbn:
  - '9780128132524'
  isbn:
  - '9780128132517'
publication_status: published
publisher: Elsevier
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Social immunity
type: book_chapter
user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1
year: '2019'
...