Lectures and labs offered during the spring semester in even-numbered years. The first half of the course provides an introduction to parasite immunobiology and parasite biodiversity. This section focuses on life-cycle variation, comparative functional morphology, and the general biology of selected taxa. The second section places the phenomenon of parasitism into an ecological and evolutionary context, with emphasis on concepts such as parasite-mediated natural selection, parasite biogeography, effects on host individuals, populations and ecosystems, and ecological epidemiology.

Textbook: Goater, T.M., Goater, C.P. and GW. Esch. 2014. Parasitism: the diversity and ecology of animal parasites. Cambridge University Press.