Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

An Evolutionary Pathway For Coping With Emerging Infectious Disease, Scott Lyell Gardner, Daniel R. Brooks, Walter A. Boeger, Eric P. Hoberg

Zea E-Books Collection

Emerging infectious disease (EID) represents an existential threat to humanity. EIDs are increasing in frequency and impact because of climate change and other human activities. We are losing the battle against EIDs because of improper assessment of the risk of EID. This stems from adherence to a failed paradigm of pathogen-host associations that suggests EIDs ought to be both unpredictable and rare. That, in turn, leads to policies suggesting that crisis response is the best we can do. Real-time and phylogenetic assessments show EIDs to be neither rare nor unpredictable—this is the parasite paradox that shows the failures of the …

Data And R Code For "Gut Transplants From Bees Fed An Antipathogenic Pollen Diet Do Not Confer Pathogen Resistance To Recipients", Rachel T. Yost, Alison E. Fowler, Lynn S. Adler

Data and Datasets

Pollinators are threatened by diverse stressors, including microbial pathogens such as Crithidia bombi. Consuming sunflower pollen dramatically reduces C. bombi infection in the bumble bee Bombus impatiens, but the mechanism behind this medicinal effect is unclear. We asked whether diet mediates resistance to C. bombi through changes in the gut microbiome. We hypothesized that sunflower pollen changes the gut microbiome, which in turn reduces Crithidia infection. To test this, we performed a gut transplant experiment. We fed donor bees either a sunflower pollen treatment or buckwheat pollen as a control treatment, and then inoculated recipient bees with homogenized guts …

Understanding The Natural History Of Juvenile Amblyomma Maculatum In Southeastern Virginia, Christina Espada, Holly Gaff

College of Sciences Posters

Amblyomma maculatum, the Gulf Coast tick, is a species of increasing public health concern. Adult A. maculatum is a known vector of several pathogens including Rickettsia parkeri, the causative agent of Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis. Amblyomma maculatum has expanded northward from its historic range along the Gulf Coast, with populations reportedly establishing in southeastern Virginia in 2010. Recently established populations of A. maculatum tend to have higher R. parkeri infection prevalence compared to longer established populations. This pattern holds for all populations found so far in southeastern Virginia, with a prevalence of R. parkeri in about 60% of A. …

Parasites: The Inside Scoop, Scott Lyell Gardner, Judy Diamond, Gábor R. Rácz, Brenda Lee

Zea E-Books Collection

Parasites are organisms that live inside or on another species, called the host. Parasites depend on their hosts for food and a place to live. They may harm the host in small or large ways. Parasitism is the most common mode of life on Earth. Humans, other animals, and all plants have parasites, usually two or more kinds. Even parasites can have parasites. There are millions of species of parasites, and scientists discover new ones every day. Parasite specimens are stored in museums all around the world. One of the world’s largest collections is in the H. W. Manter Laboratory …

Estudios En Biodiversidad, Volumen I, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Maritza López-Herrera

Zea E-Books Collection

Este libro es el producto del trabajo colegiado que han desarrollado los profesores, investigadores, y estudiantes que conforman la Red Temática de Calidad Ambiental y Desarrollo Sustentable, a través del macroproyecto “Evaluación del impacto ambiental por actividades antropogénicas: Alternativas de mitigación”. El cual fue apoyado con recursos financieros por parte del Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente (PRODEP), de la Secretaria de Educación Pública (SEP) en México. Las instituciones de educación superior y cuerpos participantes en la red temática son la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (Uso, Manejo y Conservación de la Biodiversidad UAEHCA- 10; Ciencias Ambientales UAEH-CA-59); Universidad …

Validating Tbtif2-Interacting Candidates, Fan Wu, Jennifer Berkey, Joshua Hellsing, Nisha Thaker, Bibo Li

Undergraduate Research Posters 2014

Transmitted by the tsetse fly, Trypanosoma brucei is a protozoan parasite that causes sleeping sickness in human and nagana in cattle. While infecting the bloodstream and central nervous system, T. brucei evades the immune system by altering its major surface antigen, Variant Surface Glycoproteins (VSGs), which forms a thick coat on its cell membrane. The expression sites for VSGs are at the sub-telomeric regions of T. brucei chromosomes. Telomeres, DNA-protein complexes located at the end of chromosomes, provide chromosome stability by preventing degradation of the chromosome ends. The telomere complex also regulates the sub-telomeric VSG expression and switching in T. …

Reported Incidences Of Parasitic Infections In Marine Mammals From 1892 To 1978, John R. Felix

Zea E-Books Collection

The role of parasites in the lives and deaths of marine mammals has been scrutinized by biologists for decades, but the scientific literature prior to 1978 has been difficult to acquire and time-consuming to search. Now this new and extensive bibliography gives researchers a convenient resource for reviewing the classical literature on parasites of marine mammals so that historical infection prevalence and geographical distribution can be easily and properly assessed. This book contains detailed information about accepted (or suspected) taxonomic synonyms and geographical information about the host and/or parasite, covering the parasite groups Acanthocephala, Acarina, Anoplura, Cestoda, Nematoda, and Trematoda, …

Estudios Científicos En El Estado De Hidalgo Y Zonas Aledañas, Volumen Ii, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks

Zea E-Books Collection

Los 16 capítulos que conforman este libro son una contribución al conocimiento de la biodiversidad y conservación de los recursos naturales en el estado de Hidalgo, México.

Se aborda el derecho de propiedad intelectual en la biodiversidad, citando algunos ejemplos de México. Así mismo, se presenta un estudio de la biodiversidad y distribución de la herpetofauna en cuatro tipos de vegetación. Desde el punto de vista de la helmintología se presentan dos estudios de los helmintos parásitos de vertebrados silvestres; con nuevos registros de hospederos y localidades de algunas especies de helmintos para Hidalgo. También, se aborda el uso de …

Control Of Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly) In Backyards, Sonya Broughton, Francis De Lima

Bulletins 4000 -

The Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Medfly) is thought to originate from tropical Africa. It is a pest in many areas of the world including Western Australia. It was first detected at Claremont in 1895 and is now found as far south as Esperance and as far north as Derby. The main area of infestation extends from Carnarvon to Bunbury.

Uncertainties And Speculations About The Life Cycle Of The Eastern Oyster Pathogen Haplosporidium Nelsoni (Msx), Harold H. Haskins, Jay D. Andrews

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

For 30 years, the pathogen Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) has been causing serious mortalities of eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica in the Delaware and Chesapeake bays of the eastern USA. Its life cycle is largely unknown, and methods for control are wanting. Breeding of resistant eastern oyster strains, at this time, offers the best hope for some degree of control of the disease. Although haplosporidians are known by their spores, controlled transmission, with one possible exception, has not been achieved in any of the 30 recognized species. Haplosporidium nelsoni rarely sporulates in eastern oysters, and this and other observations led to early …

Structure Of Protistan Parasites Found In Bivalve Molluscs, Frank O. Perkins

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

The literature on the structure of protists parasitizing bivalve molluscs is reviewed, and previously unpublished observations of species of class Perkinsea , phylum Haplosporidia, and class Paramyxea are presented. Descriptions are given of the flagellar apparatus of Perkinsus marinus zoospores, the ultrastructure of Perkinsus sp. from the Baltic macoma Macoma balthica, and the development of haplosporosome-like bodies in Haplosporidium nelsoni. The possible origin of stem cells of Marrteilia sydneyi from the inner two sporoplasms is discussed. New research efforts are suggested which could help elucidate the phylogenetic interrelationships and taxonomic positions of the various taxa and help in efforts to …

Epizootiology Of The Disease Caused By The Oyster Pathogen Perkinsus Marinus And Its Effects On The Oyster Industry, Jay D. Andrews

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

Perkinsus marinus is a protozoan parasite that causes a major disease of eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica from Chesapeake Bay south along the Atlantic coast of the USA and throughout the Gulf of Mexico. It is a warm-season disease that kills eastern oysters at temperatures above 20°C. The pathogen requires salinities of at least 12-15%0 to be active, but it persists tenaciously when low temperatures and salinities occur during winter and spring. Prolonged droughts that increase salinities cause extensions of the range of disease. In the Chesapeake Bay, mortalities begin in June and end in October, and up to 50% of …