During April 2010-March 2013, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services investigated multiple cases of ascariasis that had been reported by health-care providers, veterinarians, and patients. All of the cases were in persons who had lived or worked on Maine farms and had frequent exposure to pigs. Ascariasis, a parasitic roundworm infection caused by Ascaris species, is the most common ...

Future areas of emphasis for research and scholarship in nematode ecology are indicated by pressing agricultural and environmental issues, by new directions in applied nematology, and by current technological advances. Studies in nematode ecology must extend beyond observation, counting, and simple statistical analysis. Experimentation and the testing of hypotheses are needed for understanding ...

We examine stochastic effects, in particular environmental variability, in population models of biological systems. Some simple models of environmental stochasticity are suggested, and we demonstrate a number of analytic approximations and simulation-based approaches that can usefully be applied to them. Initially, these techniques, including moment-closure approximations and local linearizatio...

Trials were conducted on 3 commercial sheep farms in Sweden to assess the effect of administering spores of the nematode trapping fungus, Duddingtonia flagrans, together with supplementary feed to lactating ewes for the first 6 weeks from turn-out on pastures in spring. Also control groups of ewes, receiving only feed supplement, were established on all 3 farms. Groups were monitored by intensi...

A new paramicrolaimid nematode, Paramicrolaimus damodarani sp. nov., is described based on specimens from the continental shelf (95 m) of the south eastern Arabian Sea. Paramicrolaimus damodarani sp. nov. differs from other known species of the genus in having a smaller body size, form of the spicular apparatus, presence of 7 cuticularised protruding precloacal supplements and a strongly cuticu...

We determined the effects of crop residue on the persistence of an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae. During 2 consecutive years, nematodes were applied at rates of 2.5 x 10 and 1.0 x 10 infective juveniles/m(2) to small field plots planted with corn. Nematode persistence was monitored by exposing Galleria mellonella larvae to soil samples from plots with and without crop resid...

Gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections are an important public health and economic concern. Experimental studies have shown that resistance to infection requires CD4(+) T helper type 2 (Th2) cytokine responses characterized by the production of IL-4 and IL-13. However, despite >30 years of research, it is unclear how the immune system mediates the expulsion of worms from the GI tract. Here, ...

Drosophila suzukii populations remain low in the UK. To date, there have been no reports of widespread damage. Previous research demonstrated that various species of entomopathogenic fungi and nematodes could potentially suppress D. suzukii population development under laboratory trials. However, none of the given species was concluded to be specifically efficient in suppressing D. suzukii. The...

Individuals are often co-infected with several parasite species, yet the consequences of drug treatment on the dynamics of parasite communities in wild populations have rarely been measured. Here, we experimentally reduced nematode infection in a wild mouse population and measured the effects on other non-target parasites. A single oral dose of the anthelmintic, ivermectin, significantly reduce...

One hundred specimens of unicorn leatherjacket, Aluterus monoceros purchased from markets of municipalities of Niterói and Rio de Janeiro from May to August 2006. The fishes were measured, necropsied, fileted and analysed their organs. Sixteen fishes were parasitized by nematode Anisakidae: Anisakis spp. and Contracaecum sp. with respectively, 1 and 16% of prevalence, 2 and 3.31 of mean intensi...