Wild, Gardner & West reply

Replying to: M. J. Wade et al. Nature463, 10.1038/nature08809 (2010) We previously showed how inclusive-fitness theory separates various components of selection on parasite virulence 1 . Wade et al. 2 do not seem to dispute our results or make new predictions. Instead, they state that insufficient attention was given to multilevel-selection theory 2 . However, we pointed out the links to multi-level selection 1 , and we believe that a misunderstanding has arisen because they have fundamentally conflated selection and adaptation.