The introduction of Echinococcus to Australia over 200 years ago and its establishment in sheep rearing areas of the country inflicted a serious medical and economic burden on the country. This resulted in an investment in both basic and applied research aimed at learning more about the biology and life cycle of Echinococcus. This research served to illustrate the uniqueness of the parasite in ...

Alveolar and cystic echinococcosis are emerging and reemerging in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The expansion of Echinococcus spp. tapeworms in wildlife host reservoirs appears to be driving this emergence in some areas. Recent studies suggest a similar phenomenon may be occurring in North America. We describe the context of Echinococcus spp. research in North America, with a specific focus on the ...

Management of advanced stage of Echinococcus alveolaris is a very difficult procedure. Surgical treatment like resection and liver transplantation is accepted procedure nowadays. Here we presented a case report of Echinococcus alveolaris which invaded the inferior vena cava up to the right atrium and surrounding tissues. This patient underwent living donor liver transplantation with replacement...

An update on our understanding of molecular variation in Echinococcus and Taenia is provided. Genetic variation within certain species of Echinococcus is now a well accepted phenomenon and a number of intraspecific variants or strains of E. granulosus, in particular, have been characterized hitherto using a range of procedures. Newly acquired molecular information has now been used in epidemiol...

DNA sequencing of 1.3 kb of rDNA containing both internal transcribed spacers (ITS1, ITS2) and adjoining rRNA coding regions in each of 11 Echinococcus multilocularis isolates from Germany, Japan, and Alaska resulted in identical nucleotide sequences except for a single polymorphic locus 54 bp upstream of the 3' end of the 18S coding region, separating Eurasian isolates from an Alaskan isolate....

Alveolar and cystic hydatidosis are caused by infection with the larval stages of Echinococcus multilocularis and Echinococcus granulosus, respectively. A host-protective antigen has been identified in E. granulosus. Here we identify the presence of a closely related protein in E. multilocularis, characterize and express a cDNA encoding the antigen (designated EM95), determine the structure of ...

Hydatidosis, caused by Echinococcus granulosus is one of the most important zoonotic diseases, throughout most parts of the world. Hydatidosis is endemic in Iran and responsible for approximately 1% of admission to surgical wards. There are extensive genetic variations within E. granulosus and 10 different genotypes (G1-G10) within this parasite have been reported. Identification of strains is ...

Alternative splicing (AS), as one of the most important topics in the post-genomic era, has been extensively studied in numerous organisms. However, little is known about the prevalence and characteristics of AS in Echinococcus species, which can cause significant health problems to humans and domestic animals. Based on high-throughput RNA-sequencing data, we performed a genome-wide survey of A...