1 Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2 Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, 3 Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Tropical, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, 4 Universidade Federal de São João Del Rei, Campus Centro Oeste, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 5 Fundação de Vigilância em Saúde, Manaus, Am...

During seasonal epizootics of neurologic disease and mass mortality in the summers of 1992, 1993 and 1994 on a sea-farm in Ireland, Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts suffered from encephalitis associated with infection by a neurotropic parasite. Based on ultrastructural studies, this neurotropic parasite was identified as an intercellular presporogonic multicellular developmental stage of a hi...

A new cnidarian myxosporean infecting the spleen of an economic and ecological important bryconid fish (Salminus franciscanus) is described based on integrative taxonomic approach including morphological, ultrastructural, biological traits, geography, molecular data phylogenetic analysis. In a total thirty specimens examined, nineteen (63.3%) were infected by undescribed parasite species belong...

A myxosporean parasite in the gill lamellae of the freshwater teleost fish, Sciades herzbergii (Ariidae) (Block, 1794), from the Poti River (Northeast of Brazil) was described by light and electron microscopy studies. Polysporic histozoic cyst-like plasmodia containing several life-cycle stages, including mature spores, were observed. The spores were pyriform and uninucleate, measuring 9.15 +/-...

Myxozoans are an economically important group of microscopic parasites best known for the diseases they cause in commercially important fish hosts. The classification of myxosporeans is generally based on the morphology of their myxospores. Without molecular data, it is very difficult to identify new or existing species. DNA sequence information is therefore, a prerequisite to taxonomic and phy...

A new myxosporean species is described from the fish Semaprochilodus insignis captured from the Amazon River, near Manaus. Myxobolus insignis sp. n. was located in the gills of the host forming plasmodia inside the secondary gill lamellae. The spores had a thick wall (1.5-2 microm) all around their body, and the valves were symmetrical and smooth. The spores were a little longer than wide, with...

Myxozoan spores were detected in fecal samples from three patients presenting with abdominal pain and/or diarrhea. The spores were identical to those of Myxobolus plectroplites, a previously described pathogen from the freshwater fish Plectroplites ambiguus. All patients had recently eaten fish caught from local waters, and frozen fillets of such fish were found to be infected with M. plectropl...

1 Instituto Butantan, Secretaria de Estado da Saúde de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 2 Departamento de Ensino e Pesquisa, Fundação de Medicina Tropical Doutor Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil, 3 Escola Superior de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil, 4 Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil, 5 Centro de Pesquisas...

Addressing the needs of Japan's rapidly ageing population is a major challenge for policy-makers. Yuji Kuroiwa tells Andréia Azevedo Soares why that challenge is an opportunity to boost wellbeing and growth.