What Are the Priorities in Malaria Research?

estuaries; in male flounder (Pleuronectes yoko-hamae) in Tokyo Bay, Japan (Hashimoto et al. 2000); and in male common goby (Acanthogobius flavimanus) and grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) in coastal areas of Japan (Hara et al. 2001; Ohkubo et al. 2003) have shown that these species have been and still are being exposed to estrogenic endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). In the United Kingdom, France, and Japan as well, a small proportion of male flatfish (Allen et al. 1999b; Hashimoto et al. 2000; Kirby et al. 2004a; Minier et al. 2000) and shad (Konosirus punc-tatus) (Cho et al. 2003) have been shown to exhibit the intersex condition (presence of ovotestis). Over 7 years of survey in the United Kingdom, there have been some estuaries where male flounder have shown little or no sign of the presence of estrogenic EDCs and others where, in certain years, concentrations of VTG have approached and even exceeded those found in fully reproductively mature females. In the estuaries of the rivers Tyne and Mersey, there is also good evidence of a statistically significant decrease in the presence of estrogenic EDCs over the 7-year sampling period (Kirby et al. 2004a; Kleinkauf et al. 2004c), a finding in line with improvements in water quality that occurred during that period. Male flounder with elevated VTG concentrations in their plasma have also been caught in coastal (as opposed to estuarine) waters (Allen et al. 1999b). However, all evidence suggests these fish have migrated from contaminated estuaries rather than receiving their exposure in the open sea. The half-life of VTG in plasma of male flounder is 14 days (Allen et al. 1999b; George et al. 2004). In 2002 it was stated by Matthiessen et al. (2002), in relation to the evidence for estro-genic EDCs and ovotestis induction in flounder in some UK estuaries [obtained during the Endocrine Disruption in the Marine Environment (EDMAR) program], that " although reproductive success may be impaired in some cases, implications for fish populations are still unclear. " This statement is still true today. Marine fish are not easy to study in the field. The closest we can get to answering the question about population effects in flounder is to examine whether overtly important reproductive parameters, such as fecundity and fertility, are related to the presence of EDCs in estuaries. Few such studies have been carried out in the rivers They all show that flounder from contaminated estuaries (i.e., …