The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of important manifested parasitic diseases of Mediterranean fish and their control methods. Currently available treatments practised in Mediterranean mariculture are explained briefly under two main groups: parasites located on the skin and gills, and those located in internal organs. Available pharmaceutical and biological products for...

There is growing concern regarding the emergence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a disseminated parasitic disease caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania, as an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. This association has been principally studied in the context of human immunodeficiency virus infection, but VL has also been reported in patients undergoing treatment with immuno...

Human enteric viruses and protozoal parasites are important causes of emerging food and waterborne disease. Epidemiologic investigation and detection of the agents in clinical, food, and water specimens, which are traditionally used to establish the cause of disease outbreaks, are either cumbersome, expensive, and frequently unavailable or unattempted for the important food and waterborne enter...

Leishmaniasis is caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus Leishmania. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in Sri Lanka with over 3000 cases during the last decade and numbers are increasing. Treatment options available in Sri Lanka for CL include intralesional/intramuscular sodium stibogluconate and cryotherapy. Eight cases of treatment failure with standard therapy are reported from the D...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), is an infection due to obligate intracellular protozoa of the genus Leishmania[1]. Natural transmission of the parasite happens primarilyby way ofthe bite of contaminated female of phlebotome. In the Old World it is represented by the genus Phlebotomous but in the New World it is called Lutzomyia. Another way of transmission may occur among the intravenous drug abus...

Tetratrichomonas didelphidis (Hegner & Ratcliffe, 1927) Andersen & Reilly, 1965 is a flagellate protozoan found in the intestine, cecum, and colon of Didelphis marsupialis. The parasitic protozoa used in this study was found and isolated in the intestine of opossums in Pavlova starch-containing medium in Florianópolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, from D. marsupialis and Lutreolina crassica...

The calcium ion (Ca(2+)) is used as a major signaling molecule in a diverse range of eukaryotic cells including several human parasitic protozoa, such as Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania spp, Plasmodium spp, Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium parvum, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis. Ca(2+) is critical for invasion of intracellular parasites, and...

Recent genetic evidence suggests that parasitic protozoa often reproduce by "selfing," defined as sexual stages from a single, clonal lineage fertilizing each other. Selfing favors production of an excess of female over male progeny. We tested whether the proportion of male gametocytes of blood parasites of the genus Haemoproteus was affected by variables that could influence the probability of...

Polyamine biosynthesis and function has been shown to be a good drug target in some parasitic protozoa and it is proposed that the pathway might also represent a target in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. A series of 1,3,5-triazine-substituted polyamine analogues were tested for activity against Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. The series showed activity against the parasites and were...

Trypanosomes and leishmania are the causative agents of African sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma brucei), South American Chagas’ disease (T. cruzi) and other tropical diseases. All these parasitic protozoa have a unique thiol metabolism. Instead of the ubiquitous glutathione, the main non-protein thiol is trypanothione [bis(glutathionyl)spermidine] which is kept reduced by the flavoenzyme trypano...