Although latitudinal gradients in diversity have been well studied, latitudinal variation in the taxonomic composition of communities has received less attention. Here, we use a large dataset including 950 surveys of helminth endoparasite communities in 650 species of vertebrate hosts to test for latitudinal changes in the relative contributions of trematodes, cestodes, nematodes and acanthocep...

The immunogenicity of a tissue culture-derived vaccine generated from an Eimeria tenella-infected cell line in a serologically defined bird line, and the ability to confer protection against homologous challenge in young chicks was examined. The cell line, SB-CEV-1/F7, was infected with E. tenella sporozoites and the resulting 72-h postinfection cell-free supernatants were adjuvanted and used t...

1. Insect host–parasite systems allow investigations of the trophodynamics of ecological communities within a well-formed theoretical context. A little explored feature of such systems involves the interplay between generalized consumers and host–parasitoid dynamics. I report a study investigating how the impacts of generalized consumers, viewed here as interaction modifications, may influence ...

Parasite infections can influence host foraging behavior, movement, or social interactions. House finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) in the US are susceptible to a recently emerged strain of the bacteria, Mycoplasma gallisepticum. Infected birds develop mild to severe conjunctivitis that could affect their foraging or social behavior. We videotaped house finches with and without conjunctivitis at a...

The satisfactory results obtained in the treatment of bird malaria (P. relictum) with mepacrine hydrochloride (Das Gupta and Siddons, 1943) encouraged us to try it in P. knowlesi infection in the monkey, Silenus rhesus. It is well known that, in this monkey^ this parasite produces the most intense infection which, if unchecked, usually terminates fatally. Therefore, infected monkeys are very su...

background: this study was conducted to collect informative data on the parasitic infection of wild rodents, emphasizing on finding parasites, which have medical importance to human. methods:   during 2012-2014, a total number of 91 wild rodents were captured from rural areas of turkmen sahra, golestan province, using handmade traps. animals were anesthetized, surveyed for any ectoparasite and ...

Opportunity for parasites to manipulate host behavioral phenotype may be influenced by several factors, including the host ecology and the presence of cohabiting parasites in the same host. Metacercariae of Ornithodiplostomum ptychocheilus and "black spot" Crassiphiala bulboglossa have similar life cycles. Each parasite uses a littoral snail as a first intermediate host, fathead minnows as a se...

The evolutionary diversi®cation of living organisms is a central research theme in evolutionary ecology, and yet it remains dicult to infer the action of evolutionary processes from patterns in the distribution of rates of diversi®cation among related taxa. Using data from helminth parasite communities in 76 species of birds and 114 species of mammals, the in ̄uence of four factors that may eit...