Attempts were made to isolate and identify Korean bovine Babesia parasite. Blood samples were collected from Holstein cows in Korea, and Babesia parasites were propagated in SCID mice with circulating bovine red blood cells for isolation. The isolate was then antigenically and genotypically compared with several Japanese isolates. The Korean parasite was found to be nearly identical to the Oshi...

The effect of insect vectors on avian exposure to infection by pathogens remains poorly studied. Here, we used an insect repellent treatment to reduce the number of blood-sucking flying insects in blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus nests and examined its effect on nestling health status measured as body mass, nestling phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) response and blood parasite prevalence. We found that (i)...

The growth phenotype of asexual blood stage malaria parasites can influence their virulence and also their ability to survive and achieve transmission to the next host, but there are few methods available to characterise parasite growth parameters in detail. We developed a new assay to measure growth rates at different starting parasitaemias in a 96-well format and applied it to characterise th...

The highly conserved insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) pathway regulates metabolism, development, lifespan and immunity across a wide range of organisms. Previous studies have shown that human insulin ingested in the blood meal can activate mosquito IIS, resulting in attenuated lifespan and increased malaria parasite infection. Because human IGF1 is present at higher conc...

American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) was studied in 143 dogs in a rural area in the county of Mariluz, northwestern Paraná State, Brazil, using direct parasite search, indirect immunofluorescence (IIF), and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thirty-nine dogs (27.3%) presented lesions suggestive of the disease, 5 (12.8%) of which were positive in direct parasite search and PCR (lesion), and of...

This review briefly focuses on the role of mosquito salivary glands; and on the biological processes and mechanisms relevant to transmission of malarial parasite (Plasmodium), the causative agent for malaria. A key requirement for transmission of the parasite is an infected blood meal which initiates parasite transmission cycle. The blood feeding is an organized biological mechanism which invol...

Herein we describe an assay that was developed to quantitate the binding of normal red blood cells (RBC), labeled with carboxy fluorescein diacetate (C-FDA), to rosetting Plasmodium falciparum-infected RBC. The binding of RBC obtained from various animal species or humans to different strains or clones of rosetting P. falciparum-infected RBC was studied. A strain-specific preference of rosettin...

Malaria is a global health problem responsible for nearly one million deaths every year around 85% of which concern children younger than five years old in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, around 300 million clinical cases are declared every year. The level of infection, expressed as parasite density, is classically defined as the number of asexual parasites relative to a microliter of blood. M...

A computer simulation study on the possibility of using photoacoustic (PA) technique to differentiate intraerythrocytic stages of malarial parasite is reported. This parasite during its development substantially converts hemoglobin into hemozoin. This conversion is expected to alter the cellular absorption leading to changes in the PA emission of a red blood cell (RBC) at certain incident optic...

Leishmaniasis is a debilitating disease of the tropics, subtropics and southern Europe caused by Leishmania parasites that are transmitted during blood feeding phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae). Using non-invasive micro-computed tomography, we were able to visualize impact laboratory model infection Lutzomyia longipalpis with mexicana its response second meal. For first time show i...