Figure 1. Experiment timeline included an initial acclimation
to diets containing either 13% 18:2n-6 or 32% 18:2n-6 and then the
addition of an antioxidant supplement to the diets of half the birds on
1 September to produce the 2 X 2 factorial diet manipulation with four
diet groups: 13% 18:2n-6, anthocyanin unsupplemented (N = 23), 13%
18:2n-6, anthocyanin supplemented (N = 23), 32% 18:2n-6, anthocyanin
unsupplemented (N = 21), and 32% 18:2n-6, anthocyanin supplemented (N =
20). After at least one month of acclimation to one of these four diets,
birds were assigned to one of 20 cohorts each comprised of 3
flight-trained birds and 2 untrained birds from each diet treatment (5
cohorts per treatment). On September 23rd, and
continuing every three days thereafter, a cohort began the four days of
pre-training (PT) followed by fifteen days of flight training (FT). The
25 day flight-training schedule ended with birds performing a long
duration flight (pink shaded) followed by two recovery days (gray
shaded). Blood sampling timepoints are indicated by the blood droplets
and include for all birds a Background (BG) blood sample and a Recovery
(RC) blood sample, and for flight-trained birds a Pre-flight (PF) and
After flight (AF) blood sample taken just before and after the long
duration flight. Liver and pectoralis samples were taken from all birds
on the final day. The acute effects of flight were assessed by comparing
the change in plasma OXY and d-ROM at the AF and PF time points. The
long-term effects of flight-training on the antioxidant system were
assessed two ways: (a) by comparing the change in plasma OXY and d-ROMs
at the RC and BG time points, and (b) by comparing the oxidative status
in three tissues (blood, liver, pectoralis) of flight-trained and
untrained birds at the RC time point.