Immunity To Parasites How Animals Control Parasitic Infections

Parasites cause many important diseases in humans and domestic animals, malaria being an example. Parasites have evolved to exploit hosts' bodies whereas hosts have evolved immune systems to control infections. Host-parasite interactions therefore provide fascinating examples of evolutionary 'arms-races' in which the immune system plays a key role. Modern research in immunoparasitology is directed towards understanding and exploiting the capacity to develop effective anti-parasite immunity. By concentrating on selected infections where research has made significant progress, Immunity to Parasites provides a clear account of how host immune responses operate and how parasites can evade immunity. The experimental basis of this research is emphasised throughout. This completely updated second edition includes an expanded section on anti-parasite vaccines. The text is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates with interests in either parasitology or immunology and provides introductory sections on these topics to lead the reader into the later chapters.

Parasitic infections remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the world today. Often endemic in developing countries many parasitic diseases are neglected in terms of research funding and much remains to be understood about parasites and the interactions they have with the immune system. This book examines current knowledge about immune responses to parasitic infections affecting humans, including interactions that occur during co-infections, and how immune responses may be manipulated to develop therapeutic interventions against parasitic infection. For easy reference, the most commonly studied parasites are examined in individual chapters written by investigators at the forefront of their field. An overview of the immune system, as well as introductions to protozoan and helminth parasites, is included to guide background reading. A historical perspective of the field of immunoparasitology acknowledges the contributions of investigators who have been instrumental in developing this field of research.

Since the turn of the century, certain parasitic diseases of livestock have frus trated efforts to bring them under control by vaccination techniques; East Coast fever and trypanosomiasis are two such diseases. East Coast fever (ECF) kills a half million cattle annually; and 3 million are killed each year by trypanosomia sis, which is widely spread over tropical Mrica. Together, these diseases have closed some 7 million square kilometers of land to livestock grazing-land that might otherwise support an additional 120 million head of cattle. In 1970 W.A. Malmquist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in collabora tion with K.N. Brown, M.P. Cunningham, and other associates at the East African Veterinary Research Organization in Kenya, succeeded in cultivating in vitro the protozoal organisms responsible for East Coast fever. This success, obtained utilizing tissue cultures, encouraged a number of organizations to support research on these parasites in an accelerated effort to develop field vaccines.

Immune response of sheep, goats, cattle, and swine. Immune response of the fowl. Cell-mediated immunity responses in parasitic infections. Homocytotropic antibody response to parasitic infectious. Immediate hypersensityvity effector mechanisms. Immediate hypersensitivity effector mechanisms. Immune response to gastrointestinal heminths. Immune respopnse to tissue helminths. Immune response to tissue parasites. Immune response to arthropods. Immune response to hemoprotozoa. Immune response to intracellular parasites.

This volume emphasizes the application of modern biotechnological approaches to the study and control of animal parasites. The book begins by discussing molecular concepts and principles in general before moving on to cover specific applications for endoparasites, ectoparasites, and finally the hosts themselves. Animal Parasite Control Utilizing Biotechnology will be an instrumental reference in promoting a better understanding of the host-parasite relationship and suggesting viable means of controlling economically important parasite infections of animals. The book will be invaluable to zoologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, biochemists, geneticists, immunologists, physiologists, molecular biologists, veterinarian and medical scientists, and advanced students interested in the topic.