Host-Parasite Relationships in Veterinary Parasitology: Get to Know Your Enemy before Fighting it
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Clinical Studies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2021) | Viewed by 24573
Special Issue Editor
Interests: tropical diseases; parasitic diseases; zoonotic diseases; parasitology; molecular parasitology; veterinary parasitology; medical entomology; tick-borne diseases; helminthology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The evolutionary success of parasitism is directly related to the huge number of species that have evolved this way of life. Such success could be explained by the mechanisms evolved by these species to confront and evade the responses of their hosts, together with their capacity to adapt the metabolic processes of their hosts for their own benefit. In regards to veterinary parasitology, these adaptations may result in chronic infections that cause disease in animals resulting in loss of production, suffering and even death. In addition, due to the zoonotic potential of a considerable number of parasites, many parasitic diseases of veterinary importance are currently considered as important public health problems. The global market for antiparasitic drugs has been estimated at more than 3,000 million USD annually. Moreover, the development of drug resistance in protozoan and helminth parasites of veterinary interest has been increasingly reported. The substitution of drugs by other means (e.g., vaccination) for the control of parasitic diseases in animals would have an important impact in the improvement of the quality and food safety, since the recombinant vaccines do not leave residues in food of animal origin. Regrettably and despite their worldwide relevance, the vaccination approaches against parasites carried out so far, have not given the expected results. It has been widely suggested that the lack of knowledge regarding the underlying biological, biochemical and immunological components from the host-parasite interface represents one of the main reasons that could explain that currently not many targets have been successfully developed into vaccines against parasites. Consequently, the main objective of this Special Issue is to shed light on the cross-talk interactions between parasites of veterinary importance and their host as a fundamental step for the future development of more effective vaccines or for the characterization of new therapeutic targets for the control of these parasitic diseases.
Dr. Javier González-Miguel
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- veterinary parasitology
- parasites
- protozoan and helminth parasites
- animal hosts
- host-parasite relationships
- host-parasite interface
- cross-talk interactions
- molecular adaptations