Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academics

Distinguished Lecture Series

Title: I feel sick The biological consequences of sickness behavior

Ian Tizard, Ph.D.
Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology and
Holder of the Richard M. Schubot Chair in Avian Health
Texas A&M University

Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:30 p.m.
Auditorium, Annenberg Presidential Conference Center
Texas A&M University

Abstract

Fever, weakness, tiredness, nausea, appetite loss, as well as various aches and pains are well recognized symptoms that we are suffering from an infection. They all reflect a carefully orchestrated and complex response on the part of our body to bacterial or viral infections. Nevertheless, many medicines are designed to make us feel better by preventing their occurrence and it is unclear, just how these symptoms benefit us. Some of these responses, such as an elevated body temperature, likely improve the functioning of our immune system. Other sickness responses, such as appetite loss, are much more difficult to explain. In wild animals, sickness behavior can be a sign of weakness and may mark an animal as easy prey. As a result, signs of illness have to be hidden a frustrating experience for veterinarians. In humans, in contrast, social networks enable sick persons to take time off and so permit rapid recovery. This raises the question as to what extent is illness behavior therefore a social response. In this lecture, Dr. Tizard will review the biological mechanisms behind sickness behavior and explore some of the unexpected consequences of showing or hiding ill health.

About the Speaker

Dr. Tizard, a native of Northern Ireland, has been a faculty member at Texas A&M University since 1982. He obtained his veterinary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1969. He was a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario until 1982 when he moved to Texas A&M University to become head of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology. Since 1990, he has been a professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology. In 1999, he was appointed to the Richard M. Schubot Chair in Avian.

Dr. Tizard is actively engaged in research, ranging from the development of new and improved vaccines for influenza in humans to studies on bacterial, diseases in parrots. He has a major teaching role and a major commitment to teaching undergraduates in the Biomedical Sciences program. He has developed a course called "Great Diseases of the World" that successfully combines both science and history and attracts large numbers of students from across the university.

Dr. Tizard is the author of the standard text on veterinary immunology now in its seventh edition. He is in demand both nationally and internationally as a lecturer and speaker. As a teacher of immunology and a researcher in exotic bird diseases, he is interested in why animals develop sickness and what are the consequences of this in wild animal populations.