The heartworm Dirofilaria immitis is an important parasite of dogs. Transmitted by mosquitoes in warmer climatic zones, it is spreading across southern Europe and the Americas at an alarming pace. There is no vaccine, and chemotherapy is prone to complications. To learn more about this parasite, we have sequenced the genomes of D. immitis and its endosymbiont Wolbachia. We predict 10,179 protei...

For many pathogenic microbes that utilize mainly asexual modes of reproduction, it is unknown whether epidemics are due to either the emergence of pathogenic clones or environmentally determined increases in the population size of the organism. Descriptions of the genetic structures of epidemic populations, in conjunction with analyses of key environmental variables, are able to distinguish bet...

Dirofilaria immitis (D. immitis) is a filarial nematode which resides in the pulmonary arteries and right ventricle of heart in dogs. Mosquitoes under several genera including Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles are the competent vectors of the parasite. Dogs with heavy infection suffer from cardiorespiratory disturbances, resulting in multiple organ dysfunctions. In India, the parasite has been sporad...

This short communication describes the phylogenetic analysis of 48 Dirofilaria worms isolated from human patients in Ukraine. 102 cases were both of subcutaneous (47; 46.1%) and ocular (54; 52.9%) locations. Worms from 44 patients (15 subcutaneous and 29 ocular) were subjected to DNA extraction and amplification of a specific fragment of the 12S rRNA subunit, and sequences were used for phyloge...

Vector-borne diseases (VBD) are caused by a range of pathogens transmitted by arthropods and have emerged in recent years, showing a wider geographic distribution and increased global prevalence. In addition to their veterinary medical importance, cats play a central role in the transmission cycles of some VBD agents by acting as reservoirs, amplifying hosts or sentinels. The aim of this study ...

Uncovering the correct phylogeny of closely related species requires analysis of multiple gene genealogies or, alternatively, genealogies inferred from the multiple alleles found at highly polymorphic loci, such as microsatellites. However, a concern in using microsatellites is that constraints on allele sizes may occur, resulting in homoplasious distributions of alleles, leading to incorrect p...

For more than 20 years, anthelmintics of the macrocyclic lactone (ML) drug class have been widely and effectively used as preventives against the canine heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis. However, in recent years an increased number of lack of efficacy (LOE) cases are being reported, in which dogs develop mature heartworm infections despite receiving monthly prophylactic doses of ML drugs. While t...

Previous studies from our laboratory established that C-ASWS, an alkali-soluble, water-soluble extract from cell walls of Coccidioides immitis, protects mice against lethal challenge with this fungus. The C-ASWS extract contains a glycosylated protein, designated antigen 2 (Ag2), and a polysaccharide antigen. We recently cloned Ag2 cDNA and showed that the recombinant fusion protein elicited st...

Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii are primary pathogenic fungi that cause disease in immunologically-normal animals and people. The organism is found exclusively in arid regions of the Southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America, but not in other parts of the world. This study is a detailed analysis of the transposable elements (TE) in Coccidioides spp. As is common in most fungi,...

dirofilaria immitis is a filariid worm which typically lives as adult in the right ventricle of the heart and the pulmonary arteries of the dog, causing the canine heartworm disease.therapy of canine dirofilariosis due to dirofilaria immitis is indicated for dogs suffering from clinical signs of the disease (such as chronic cough). the present paper describes diagnostic and treatment features o...