some emergent properties of parasitic interactions include:
- colonization of a host
-Establishment within the host while evading the immune system responses
-transmission to new hosts
altered host behavior
-Castration of the host
- Use of the host as transport or reservoir
- The ability of a parasite to infect a host and the resulting effects on the host (and parasite) are dependent on the specific parasite-host interaction. Host specificity, virulence, and duration of infection will all depend on which host the parasite is infecting. A parasite may be able to alter the behavior of one host but not another, while an immunocompromised host may be susceptible to infection where a healthy host is not.
I would add co-evolutionary arms race, where the host immunity and parasite immune evasive mechanisms will co-evolve due to selection pressures introduced by the host-parasite interaction.
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