BACKGROUND Plasmodium requires an obligatory life stage in its mosquito host. The parasites encounter a number of insults while journeying through this host and have developed mechanisms to avoid host defenses. Lysozymes are a family of important antimicrobial immune effectors produced by mosquitoes in response to microbial challenge. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A mosquito lysozyme was ide...

AIM The aim was to assess the efficacy of pine leaves as an alternative bedding material on the performance of broiler chicks. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was conducted in summer. Total 120, day old Vencobb straight run chicks were procured, and after 5 days of brooding, chicks were randomly distributed into four treatment groups viz. paddy husk (Group I), paddy straw (Group II), ...

Background The WHO’s objective regarding schistosomiasis control is to maintain a low burden by maintaining lower parasitic charges in endemic regions. The schistosomiasis and helminthiasis control program was launched in 2004 in Niger. Although yearly praziquantel treatment does not clear entirely schistosomiasis worms in people, it allows reducing parasitic loads and thus avoids serious renal...

Weekly releases ofMuscidifurax raptorellusKogan and Legner and Spalangia cameroni Perkins were made for 12 wk after house cleanouts in Florida pullet houses in either spring/summer (MayÐAugust) or fall (SeptemberÐDecember). Releases were made by weekly placement of 62,500 and 85,000 pupae parasitized by M. raptorellus and S. cameroni, respectively, which produced an average of 79,049 and 32,841...

C3H and C57BL/6 mice are resistant to Leishmania major but develop chronic lesions with persistent parasite loads when they are infected with Leishmania amazonensis. These lesions develop in the absence of interleukin-4 (IL-4), indicating that susceptibility to this parasite is not a result of development of a Th2 response. Expression of the cytokine IL-10 during infection could account for the...

In many animals, aspects of colouration are hypothesized to convey information on the body condition or quality of individuals. This idea has been tested primarily for the carotenoid-based component of body colouration. The significance of other pigments in this context has received far less attention. In the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara, the degree of black patterning on the ventrum and thr...

Triatoma guasayana (Wygodzinsky & Abalos) is a peridomestic triatomine with epidemiological importance in Bolivia, that may play an important role in the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas). In this study, two parameters of vectorial capacity were evaluated: the interval of feeding-defecation time and metacyclogenesis, in adult males and females and nymphal instars II to V of T. guasayan...

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) contains the most variable genes in vertebrates, but despite extensive research, the mechanisms maintaining this polymorphism are still unresolved. One hypothesis is that MHC polymorphism is a result of balancing selection operating by overdominance, but convincing evidence for overdominant selection in natural populations has been lacking. We present ...

Parasitism has long been emphasised as an important process structuring animal communities. However, empirical evidence documenting the impact of parasites in other than simple laboratory settings is lacking. Here we examine the trait-mediated indirect effects of echinostome trematodes on a New Zealand soft bottom intertidal community of macroinvertebrates. Curtuteria australis and a second rel...

Here, we assessed outcome of experimental infection by Neospora caninum in goats intravenously inoculated with 10(6) tachyzoites of the Nc-Spain7 isolate at 40 (G1), 90 (G2) and 120 (G3) days of gestation. Infected goats had fever between 5 and 9 days post inoculation (dpi); all were seropositive at the time of abortion/birth. Foetal death occurred in G1 from 10 to 21 dpi (n = 7) and in G2 from...