on viral and bacterial diseases. The notable absence from this historiography is the immunology of the protozoan and metazoan parasitic infections that, whilst major sources of suffering and mortality, have often been marginalized into the concerns of tropical medicine and public health. Issues of parasitism, howeve mark one of the closest loci for the interaction of medical and veterinary conc...

Review This is a unique book dealing with tick species imported to the US through human immigration, migratory birds, exotic animal trade etc. Although the name might suggest it would focus exclusively with ticks found in the US, there are also a few chapters explaining from which continents these invasive ticks were coming and which give valuable information about their ecology, related epidem...

The suitability of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as hosts for the cattle ticks Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus, has been well documented. These ticks have a wide host range, and both transmit Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina, the agents responsible for bovine babesiosis. Although this disease and its vectors have been eradicated from th...

The recombinant Bm86-based tick vaccines have shown their efficacy for the control of cattle ticks, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and R. annulatus infestations. However, cattle ticks often co-exist with multi-host ticks such as Hyalomma and Amblyomma species, thus requiring the control of multiple tick infestations for cattle and other hosts. Vaccination trials using a R. microplus recomb...

In terrestrial snakes, rugose scales are uncommon and (if they occur) generally are found on both sexes. In contrast, rugose scales are seen in most sea snakes, especially in males. Why has marine life favored this sex-specific elaboration of scale rugosity? We pose and test alternative hypotheses about the function of rugose scales in males of the turtle-headed sea snake (Emydocephalus annulat...

Tick-borne diseases are widespread in tropical and temperate regions and are responsible for important economic losses in those areas. In order to assess the presence and prevalence of various pathogens in southern Italy, we retrospectively analyzed cattle blood samples collected for a previous study in 2000 using reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization. The study had been carried out in three re...

Abstract The one-host cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (Say), and southern microplus (Canestrini), are important ectoparasitic pests of cattle, Bos taurus L., mostly for transmitting the causal agents bovine babesiosis. Bovine babesiosis inflicted substantial production losses in United States before vectors were eliminated by 1943, with exception a Permanent Quarantine Zo...