Ecology and evolution of infectious disease (fall 2025)

Last updated: 26 Oct 2025 18:31

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Course meetings

• 12:30-12:20 Mon/Weds, 1:30-2:20 Fri (all Toronto time), location on Mosaic
• Please mask and/or stay home if you may be infectious!
• Please ask me if you need to participate remotely or access lecture recordings

Misc info

• Textbook: Claude Combes, The Art of Being A Parasite; available from the bookstore or via Perusall
• Platforms: Avenue to Learn, course web page, forums (TBD) (see below)
• Full course bibliography

Where to find stuff

• schedule, readings, notes, course outline, etc.: here
• dropbox for assignments, marks: Avenue
• discussion questions: Piazza (sign up here)
• Perusall: sign up here)
• SpringerLink

Links

• Course outline
• Assignments (due dates in schedule below)
• The back-end for this site
• in-class scribbles

Communication

• instructor: Ben Bolker
  • Questions are best asked in the appropriate channel on Piazza (publicly or privately)
  • if necessary, e-mail to bolker@mcmaster.ca with “BIO 4AE3” in the subject line; include your MacID in your message if not e-mailing from your McMaster e-mail account
  • office hours: TBA
• teaching assistant: Sam George
  • weekly office hours, TBA
  • please contact via Piazza (privately if necessary)
  • will answer as soon as possible, but will be more readily available during normal working hours (9 AM to 5 PM Toronto time)
  • responses are not guaranteed within 24 hours of an assignment deadline; please plan ahead!

Schedule

(subject to revision!)

start date	topic	reading/viewing	notes	assignments
02-Sep	introduction & concepts; epidemic models and epidemic dynamics	Combes (2005) ch. 1-2	intro; intro docx; intro pdf; definitions; definitions docx; definitions pdf; scribbles	register for Piazza (and eventually Perusall); send me a private message with your name, something memorable about you, and (if you’re willing) a photo
08-Sep	intro continued, epidemic dynamics		epidemic dynamics; epidemic dynamics docx; epidemic dynamics pdf;definition scribbles; epi scribbles 1	Read & comment on Combes on Perusall (by Thursday afternoon)
15-Sep	parasites and host demography; extinction & conservation	Vredenburg et al. (2010)	notes on writing; writing peeves; epi scribbles 2; host population dynamics; host population dynamics docx; host population dynamics pdf; on-line epi models; LLM prompt; epi scribbles 3	19 Sep: mini-essay 1 (dropbox on Avenue)
22-Sep	parasites and host communities		parasites and host communities; parasites and host communities docx; parasites and host communities pdf	23 Sep (Tues) 5 PM: Vredenburg discussion questions on Perusall
29-Sep	within-host dynamics of parasites		within-host dynamics; within-host dynamics docx; within-host dynamics pdf; 29 sep; 1 oct; 3 oct	3 Oct: term paper topics due (Avenue dropbox)
6-Oct	host-parasite coevolution		host-parasite coevolution; host-parasite coevolution docx; host-parasite coevolution pdf; Oct 6 scribbles; Oct 8 scribbles	9 Oct: discussion questions on Richards et al. (2023)
08/09 Oct	midterm test. 6-8 PM	ABB 163 (8 Oct)/ABB 164 (9 Oct)
13-Oct	midterm recess
20-Oct	Evolution of virulence	Decaestecker et al. (2007)	evolution of virulence; PDF; docx; 20 oct scribbles; 22 oct scribbles	deCaestecker et al DQs (Thursday)
27-Oct	Evolution of host resistance and tolerance		evolution of host resistance and tolerance; resistance/tolerance evolution docx; resistance/tolerance evolution pdf
	31 Oct: mini-essay 2
03-Nov	Evolution of antimicrobial resistance and immune escape			7 Nov: term paper draft due
10-Nov	(continued)
17-Nov	Parasite manipulation of host behaviour			24 Nov: group project due
24-Nov	Parasite-mediated sexual selection; Ecosystems and emerging disease?			27 Nov: Mini-essay 3; 29 Nov, peer reviews of term paper drafts
1-Dec	Wrap-up
14-Dec				final term paper due

References

Combes, Claude. 2005. The Art of Being a Parasite. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://archive.org/details/artofbeingparasi0000comb.

Decaestecker, Ellen, Sabrina Gaba, Joost A. M. Raeymaekers, Robby Stoks, Liesbeth Van Kerckhoven, Dieter Ebert, and Luc De Meester. 2007. “Host–Parasite ‘Red Queen’ Dynamics Archived in Pond Sediment.” Nature 450 (7171): 870–73. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06291.

Richards, Robert L., L. Mike Conner, Gail Morris, John M. Drake, and Vanessa O. Ezenwa. 2023. “Season and Prey Identity Mediate the Effect of Predators on Parasites in Rodents: A Test of the Healthy Herds Hypothesis.” Oecologia 201 (1): 107–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-022-05284-8.

Vredenburg, Vance T., Roland A. Knapp, Tate S. Tunstall, and Cheryl J. Briggs. 2010. “Dynamics of an Emerging Disease Drive Large-Scale Amphibian Population Extinctions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (21): 9689–94. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914111107.