Purpose: Research has not convincingly demonstrated the utility of saliva secretory Immunoglobulin-A (SIgA) as a biomarker of upper-respiratory-tract-infection (URTI) risk and disagreement exists about the influence of heavy exercise („open-window-theory‟) and dehydration on saliva SIgA. Prompted by the search for viable alternatives, we compared the utility of tear and saliva SIgA to predict URTI prospectively (study-one) and assessed the influence of exercise (study-two) and dehydration (study-three) using a repeated-measures-crossover design. Methods: In study-one, forty subjects were recruited during the common-cold season. Subjects provided tear and saliva samples weekly and recorded upper-respiratory-symptoms (URS) daily for 3-weeks. RT-PCR confirmed common-cold pathogens in 9 of 11 subjects reporting URS (82%). Predictive utility of tear and saliva SIgA was explored by comparing healthy samples with those collected the week pre-URS. In study-two, thirteen subjects performed a 2-hour run at 65% VO2peak. In study-three, thirteen subjects performed exercise-heat-stress to 3% body-mass-loss followed by overnight fluid restriction. Results: Tear SIgA concentration and secretion rate were 48% and 51% lower respectively during URTI and 34% and 46% lower the week pre-URS (P30%. Tear SIgA secretion rate >5.5 μg∙min-1 or no decrease >30% predicted subjects free of URS in >80% of cases. Tear SIgA concentration decreased post-exercise (-57%: P