On 2016 Mar 27, Gustav van Niekerk commented:

So called ‘sickens associated anorexia’ (SAA) is one of the major manifestations of an infection. I am very curious regarding the extent to which this response is evolutionary conserved: I have come across articles on describing a SAA in vertebrate [1-4] and invertebrates [5-8] (sorry, not using the NCBI PMID codes as I am cut-and pasting from a draft) such as Drosophila and African army worm but not primitive animals such as corals and sea anemone. In your manuscript, you make reference that “no feeding occurred after the infection” as well as the “retraction of tentacles”. Is this because you stopped feeding, or because the animal stopped feeding? More explicitly, would you consider the sea anemone enacting a form of SAA? Also, is there any similar study describing a decrees in feeding when infected by other primitive animals such as see sponges?

References 1. Crespi EJ, Denver RJ: Roles of stress hormones in food intake regulation in anuran amphibians throughout the life cycle. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 2005, 141(4):381-390. 2. De Voe RS: Nutritional support of reptile patients. Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract 2014, 17(2):249-261. 3. Islam AN, Woo PT: Anorexia in goldfish Carassius auratus infected with Trypanosoma danilewskyi. Dis Aquat Org 1991, 11(1):45-48. 4. Johnson R, Curtis S, Dantzer R, Bahr J, Kelley K: Sickness behavior in birds caused by peripheral or central injection of endotoxin. Physiol Behav 1993, 53(2):343-348. 5. Povey S, Cotter SC, Simpson SJ, Lee KP, Wilson K: Can the protein costs of bacterial resistance be offset by altered feeding behaviour? J Anim Ecol 2009, 78(2):437-446. 6. Povey S, Cotter SC, Simpson SJ, Wilson K: Dynamics of macronutrient self‐medication and illness‐induced anorexia in virally infected insects. J Anim Ecol 2014, 83(1):245-255. 7. Adamo SA, Fidler TL, Forestell CA: Illness-induced anorexia and its possible function in the caterpillar, Manduca sexta. Brain Behav Immun 2007, 21(3):292-300. 8. Ayres JS, Schneider DS: The role of anorexia in resistance and tolerance to infections in Drosophila. PLoS Biol 2009, 7(7):e1000150.

On 2016 Mar 27, Gustav van Niekerk commented:

So called ‘sickens associated anorexia’ (SAA) is one of the major manifestations of an infection. I am very curious regarding the extent to which this response is evolutionary conserved: I have come across articles on describing a SAA in vertebrate [1-4] and invertebrates [5-8] (sorry, not using the NCBI PMID codes as I am cut-and pasting from a draft) such as Drosophila and African army worm but not primitive animals such as corals and sea anemone. In your manuscript, you make reference that “no feeding occurred after the infection” as well as the “retraction of tentacles”. Is this because you stopped feeding, or because the animal stopped feeding? More explicitly, would you consider the sea anemone enacting a form of SAA? Also, is there any similar study describing a decrees in feeding when infected by other primitive animals such as see sponges?

References 1. Crespi EJ, Denver RJ: Roles of stress hormones in food intake regulation in anuran amphibians throughout the life cycle. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 2005, 141(4):381-390. 2. De Voe RS: Nutritional support of reptile patients. Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract 2014, 17(2):249-261. 3. Islam AN, Woo PT: Anorexia in goldfish Carassius auratus infected with Trypanosoma danilewskyi. Dis Aquat Org 1991, 11(1):45-48. 4. Johnson R, Curtis S, Dantzer R, Bahr J, Kelley K: Sickness behavior in birds caused by peripheral or central injection of endotoxin. Physiol Behav 1993, 53(2):343-348. 5. Povey S, Cotter SC, Simpson SJ, Lee KP, Wilson K: Can the protein costs of bacterial resistance be offset by altered feeding behaviour? J Anim Ecol 2009, 78(2):437-446. 6. Povey S, Cotter SC, Simpson SJ, Wilson K: Dynamics of macronutrient self‐medication and illness‐induced anorexia in virally infected insects. J Anim Ecol 2014, 83(1):245-255. 7. Adamo SA, Fidler TL, Forestell CA: Illness-induced anorexia and its possible function in the caterpillar, Manduca sexta. Brain Behav Immun 2007, 21(3):292-300. 8. Ayres JS, Schneider DS: The role of anorexia in resistance and tolerance to infections in Drosophila. PLoS Biol 2009, 7(7):e1000150.