BSCI477

Prerequisite: C- or better in BSCI160 and either MATH136 or MATH140. Recommended: BSCI361. Parasites are a ubiquitous feature of ecological communities, and can strongly impact population growth, extinction risk, community structure and biodiversity, as well as pose serious risks to human health and food security. This course will cover basic principles of disease ecology, including; the diversity of parasitic organisms and transmission modes, host and pathogen traits for defense and infection, mathematical models of disease spread, the impacts of disease at different ecological scales, and host-parasite co-evolution. In the latter half of the course we will apply these basic concepts to current real-world problems in disease ecology including emerging infectious diseases in humans, wildlife and agriculture. We will use examples from plants, animals and humans to about an equal degree. This course will have a strong quantitative focus, and completion of the math series is recommended.