Parasites have threatened Australia’s biosecurity since the early days of European settlement. Tick fever in cattle and liver fluke, along with their invertebrate hosts, and hydatid disease head the list of parasites that are still impacting li...
Landscape diversification is a key element for the development of sustainable agriculture. This study explores whether the implementation of habitats for pest natural enemies enhances conservation biological control in an adjacent field. In the prese...
The Canary Islands are considered a hot spot for marine species biodiversity. Each stranded cetacean has provided important scientific, biological and pathological information. The morphological identification of parasites in these stranded cetaceans...
In January 2020, a mortality event was documented in endangered Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery (Neosho, MO, USA). Moribund fish appeared emaciated, with hemorrhages on the fins and rostrums. Mortality stea...
Numerous lab and field studies have reported the potential of soil predatory mites for the biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes and arthropods pests. Most of these studies have utilized biocontrol agents in augmentative releases, essential...
We studied the genetic variability of serine protease inhibitors (serpins) of Myxozoa, microscopic endoparasites of fish. Myxozoans affect the health of both farmed and wild fish populations, causing diseases and mortalities. Despite their global imp...
Malaria parasites have their Achilles' heel; they are vulnerable in small parts of their relevant molecules where they can be wounded and killed. These are sporozoite and merozoite protein conserved high activity binding peptides (cHABPs), playing a...
For the purpose of nature management and species conservation, European bison (Bison bonasus) are being increasingly reintroduced into nature reserves across Europe. The aim of this study was to investigate European bison’s adaptability to new...
The silver perch, Bidyanus bidyanus (Mitchell) (Terapontidae) is a freshwater fish, endemic to the Murray-Darling river system in south-eastern Australia. Population declines have led to the fish being listed as critically endangered by the Australia...
A uterine fibroid is a benign smooth muscle neoplasm of the uterus. Parasitic fibroids (PMs) are a type of myoma that do not have any direct attachment to the uterus. PMs can arise from the implantation of tissue fragments generated during the morcel...
Biochemical, structural and single amino acid level analysis of 49 Plasmodium falciparum protein regions (13 sporozoite and 36 merozoite proteins) has highlighted the functional role of each conserved high activity binding peptide (cHABP) in cell hos...
Parasitic plants are ecologically important because they can exert a profound influence on the surrounding ecosystem. Yet the ecology and host specificity of most parasitic plant species remain poorly known or undocumented. Cistanche phelypaea is a l...
Autophagy is a eukaryotic cellular machinery that is able to degrade large intracellular components, including organelles, and plays a pivotal role in cellular homeostasis. Target materials are enclosed by a double membrane vesicle called autophagoso...
Gastrointestinal helminth parasites can be transferred during conservation translocations and impact their outcome. The current study applied non-invasive coprological sampling to investigate the helminth infection rates and dynamics in translocated...
The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) is classified as an endangered species by the IUCN, with a global population that does not exceed 800 individuals. There is limited understanding around the biology and health status of the species, ren...
Signal-dependent transport into and out of the nucleus mediated by members of the importin (IMP) superfamily of nuclear transporters is critical to the eukaryotic function and a point of therapeutic intervention with the potential to limit disease pr...
Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the species of artiodactyl host related to the fecal matter collected in a forest area in Rio de Janeiro state and carry out a parasitological investigation. Methods: Artiodactyl feces were collec...
The Oriental stork, Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe, 1873 (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae), once common as a sedentary stork species across Japan, experienced a marked population decline during the last century, reaching extinction in the country in 1971 as a re...
Habitat loss and degradation, restricted ranges, prey exploitation, and poaching are important factors for the decline of several wild carnivore populations and additional stress from infectious agents is an increasing concern. Given the rapid growth...
Urban agriculture is practiced in spatially fragmented landscapes with unique characteristics that can impact species occurrence in time and space. As a result, biological control services, an ecosystem service from naturally occurring arthropod natu...
Climate change and anthropic activities are the two main factors explaining wild great ape habitat reduction and population decline. The extent to which human-borne infectious diseases are contributing to this trend is still poorly understood. This i...
Severe leaf galling by the jujube gall midge Dasineura jujubifolia (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) compromises photosynthesis and yield in arid-zone jujube orchards, yet Xinjiang-specific evidence to guide biological control has been scarce. Here we provide...
The reintroduction of captive animals to the wild helps restore endangered species, but it risks pathogen transmission, harming wild populations. Such transmission can impact the genetic diversity and long-term viability of these populations. This st...
Environmental changes in the Brazilian Pantanal and Cerrado facilitate the spread of parasitic diseases in wildlife, with significant implications for public health owing to their zoonotic potential. This study aimed to examine the occurrence and div...
The addition of flowering companion plants within or around crop fields is a promising strategy to strengthen pest regulation by their natural enemies. Aromatic plants are frequently used as companion plants, but their effects on natural enemies rema...
Leishmania infantum, the sand fly-transmitted protozoan parasite responsible for leishmaniasis in humans, dogs, and cats, is endemic in the Iberian Peninsula. However, the impact of L. infantum infection on the conservation of the endangered Iberian...
Red deer (Cervus elaphus) populations in north-western Italy have been remodeled in recent decades. Multiple translocations and the spontaneous migration from Switzerland and France resulted in the successful redistribution of the red deer after huma...
Free-living species often receive greater conservation attention than the parasites they support, with parasite conservation often being hindered by a lack of parasite biodiversity knowledge. This study aimed to determine the current state of knowled...
The diversity, spread, and evolution of parasites in non-human primates (NHPs) is a relevant issue for human public health as well as for NHPs conservation. Although previous reviews have recorded information on parasites in NHPs (Platyrrhines) in th...
Like Thomas Hardy’s famous novel Far from the Madding Crowd, Plasmodium falciparum parasites display their most relevant survival structures (proteins) involved in host cell invasion far away from the immune system’s susceptible regions, displaying t...
Mutillid wasps are ectoparasitic insects that parasitize the enclosed developmental stages of their hosts. Adults are sexually dimorphic, with brilliantly colored and hardened cuticles. The biology of parasitic mutillid wasps has rarely been addresse...
Microtubules constitute fundamental cytoskeletal polymers that orchestrate cell division, intracellular trafficking, and the maintenance of cellular architecture across eukaryotic lineages. The biogenesis, folding, and steady-state homeostasis of &al...
Climate change causes organisms, including species that act as parasite reservoirs and vectors, to shift their distribution to higher altitudes, affecting wildlife infestation patterns. We studied how ectoparasite distributions varied with altitude u...
The rock partridge (Alectoris graeca saxatilis) is an alpine Galliform with high conservation value. Several factors, including parasitic helminths, play a role in population dynamics, and consequently in the conservation management of wild Galliform...
The field of comparative genomics of malaria parasites has recently come of age with the completion of the whole genome sequences of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and a rodent malaria model, Plasmodium yoelii yoelii. With several o...
The Iberian Peninsula is one of the most humanized areas in Europe, yet humans may cohabit with large predators, such as the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), at the expense of many contributions to its conservation. The limited wolves’ terr...
The alveolates (Superphylum Alveolata) comprise a group of primarily single-celled eukaryotes that have adopted extremely diverse modes of nutrition, such as predation, photoautotrophy and parasitism. The alveolates consists of several major phyla in...
In the last decade, over 40% of bird species in Europe have experienced poor and bad conservation status, with more than 30% of bird species in mainland Portugal threatened with extinction. Along with anthropogenic factors, parasites and pathogens su...
Updated notions about the so-called hygiene hypothesis consider now that helminths may have influence in the training of the immune system during childhood. Considering the similar type of immune response between helminth infections and allergic illn...
Autophagy is a ubiquitous eukaryotic process that also occurs in trypanosomatid parasites, protist organisms belonging to the supergroup Excavata, distinct from the supergroup Opistokontha that includes mammals and fungi. Half of the known yeast and...
Amphipods are a key component of aquatic ecosystems due to their distribution, abundance and ecological role. They also serve as hosts for many micro- and macro-parasites. The importance of parasites and the necessity to include them in ecological st...
Few major advances in fighting parasitic diseases have been made in China since the development of new methods for prevention, control, and elimination. However, the proportion of immunocompromised individuals has increased due to the growth of chron...
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Leishmaniasis is a disease of public importance with a complex transmission cycle. A quantitative PCR was developed by using the small subunit of the ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rRNA) as a DNA target, which is conserved in all Leishmania species. A TaqMa...
Protozoan parasites are responsible for several harmful and widespread human diseases that cause high morbidity and mortality. Currently available treatments have serious limitations due to poor efficiency, strong adverse effects, and high cost. Henc...
Afrotropical regions have high bird diversity, yet few studies have attempted to unravel the prevalence of avian haemosporidia in conservation areas. The diversity and host specificity of parasites in biodiversity hotspots is crucial to understanding...
The parasitic relationship between Maculinea butterflies and Myrmica ants has been extensively studied but little information is available on the spatial occurrence of Maculinea larvae. We searched for the presence of Maculinea teleius in 211 ant nes...
Sturgeon species have inhabited the world’s seas and rivers for more than 200 million years and hold significant taxonomic significance, representing a strong conservation interest in aquatic biodiversity as well as in the economic sector, as t...
The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is one of the most endangered felid species in the world. Conservation efforts have increased its population size and distribution and reinforced their genetic diversity through captive breeding and reintroduction pro...
The knowledge of raptor pathogens and associated lesions may be extremely important to enhancing raptor conservation efforts and reducing pathogen spillover to humans and domesticated animals and vice versa. Parasite infections of the digestive syste...
Gametogenesis is an essential step for malaria parasite transmission and is activated in mosquito by signals including temperature drop, pH change, and mosquito-derived xanthurenic acid (XA). Recently, a membrane protein gametogenesis essential prote...
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