Although considerable research has been carried out on Dreissena spp., relatively little is known about the symbiotic organisms living within them. We report a two-year study of the dynamics of infection by the commensal ciliate Conchophthirus acuminatus in D. polymorpha and D. bugensis populations in the Dnieper River in the Ukraine and in four D. polymorpha populations in Belarus. C. acuminat...

Parasite life-history characteristics, the environment, and host defenses determine variation in parasite population parameters across space and time. Parasite abundance and distribution have received little attention despite their pervasive effects on host populations and community dynamics. We used analyses of variance to estimate the variability of intensity, prevalence, and abundance of 4 s...

background occult hepatitis b infected (obi) patients cannot eradicate hepatitis b virus (hbv)-dna from their liver and peripheral blood, completely. objectives the main aim of this study was to investigate the rate of hla-a2 expression on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmcs) of patients with obi. materials and methods in this experimental study, intensity of hla-a2 was measured on the pb...

the lernaea parasite was reported in alburnus hohenackeri kessler, 1870, collected from the char-nimeh (or chahnimeh) lake, eastern iran. three fishes were infected with l. intestinalis having 3 to 22 parasites increasing with fish size. the maximum and minimum of parasite lengths were 138.02 mm and 24.54 mm respectively. the prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of infection by plerocercoid...

in this survey 45 carnivores including 14 jackals, 23 stray dogs, 2 foxes, 2 domestic cats, 1 wild cat, 2 swine and 1 wolf were collected. on post-mortem examination, 84% carcases were infected and 13 zoonotic helminth species were recovered. dirofilaria immitis was the most commonly parasite and toxocara canis showed the highest intensity of infection. one species from swine and two helminth s...

Nosema ceranae is a widely prevalent microsporidian parasite in the western honey bee. There is considerable uncertainty regarding infection dynamics of this important pathogen in honey bee colonies. Understanding the infection dynamics at the colony level may aid in development of a reliable sampling protocol for N. ceranae diagnosis, and provide insights into efficient treatment strategies. T...

Outbred LACA mice were administered low (100 ova), medium (1000 ova), high (3000 ova) and trickle (4x250 ova) doses of Toxocara canis ova and the effect of infection was examined with respect to the number of larvae recovered from the brain and their behaviour. Recovery of larvae from the brain was generally low with the % recovery expressed in terms of the total dose administered being highest...

Many studies have identified various host behavioural and ecological traits that are associated with parasite infection, including host gregariousness. By use of meta-analyses, we investigated to what degree parasite prevalence, intensity and species richness are correlated with group size in gregarious species. We predicted that larger groups would have more parasites and higher parasite speci...

From May 2007 to May 2008 we have examined by otoscopy a total number of 214 cats, aged between 0 and 6 months, brought in for their first veterinary examination to a private veterinary clinic. All cats were of urban origin. In all positive cats we performed a washing of the ear using warm paraffin oil in order to determine intensity of infection. Statistical analysis was performed using the Ch...

Given their global distribution and abilities to persist in the host, helminths can play a crucial role in affecting risk of infections by increasing individual variation in infection. Helminth co-infections are of particular interest because by altering host immune responses, they can modify host susceptibility and thus intensity and transmission of other parasites/pathogens. The dynamics of c...