Acta Tropica

BACKGROUND: Taenia solium is a zoonotic tapeworm widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa. Specific health education is regarded as a central element in controlling T. solium. In 2014, an electronic health education tool called 'The Vicious Worm', which was concerned with prevention of T. Solium was introduced to health and agricultural professionals in Mbeya, Tanzania, an endemic setting. Introduction to ´The Vicious Worm' of 1.5-hours significantly improved the participants' knowledge...

Swine leptospirosis poses a major problem in the agricultural sector. The gold standard for serodiagnosis of leptospirosis is Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT). However, the limitations of this technique make the search for alternative diagnostic methods inevitable. In the present study, ErpY-like recombinant protein (rErpY-like), produced in Escherichia coli and used as antigen in indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), was evaluated for its efficacy as a novel diagnostic tool for swine leptospirosis...

In Brazil, the visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by Leishmania infantum, while the tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) etiological agents are mainly Leishmania braziliensis and Leishmania amazonensis. The canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) diagnosis is an important step of the VL control program in Brazil, which involves the elimination of infected dogs, the main urban VL reservoirs. The current serology-based diagnostic tests have shown cross-reactivity between these three species, whereas molecular diagnosis allows high sensitivity and specie identification...

A recently described species of black fly, Simulium wayani Takaoka and Chen, from the island of Timor was chromosomally mapped to provide insights into its evolutionary and biogeographic history. The morphologically based species status of S. wayani is supported by a suite of fixed chromosomal rearrangements and unique sex chromosomes derived primarily from a large pool of polymorphisms in the S. ornatipes complex in Australia. The banding patterns of its polytene chromosomes indicate that S. wayani is closely related to a pair of homosequential cryptic species (S...

BACKGROUND: The HIV-2 and HTLV-1 prevalences in Bissau have followed similar trends in surveys from 1996 and 2006 with HTLV-1 prevalences of 3.6% and 2.3%, respectively. However, following the introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART) and informative campaigns about HIV, the epidemics may have shifted. To evaluate the current HTLV prevalence and the continued association with HIV, we performed a third survey. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed from November 2014 to February 2016...

BACKGROUND: Chagas disease is an important health problem in Latin America. Relatives of T. cruzi seropositive donors could also test positive in serological assays. Therefore, the study of Chagas diseases in family clusters has become important to accurately evaluate the problem that this infectious disease represents. OBJECTIVE: to investigate family cluster from blood donors, their serological, clinical and epidemiological status. METHODS: 53 family clusters consisting of index case and a variable number of relatives were studied...

The insects of subfamily Triatominae exhibit many morphological features used for taxonomic identification. In some species, however, these features are very similar. The authors have proposed by first time the description of the structure referred as urotergite I process. The objective of the study was analyse the use of urotergite I process in the species of the genus Triatoma as a taxonomic feature that may contribute to the more precise and correct identification of these Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas, 1909 vectors...

Microscopic examination of blood smears is the standard method for malaria diagnosis but is labor-intensive and requires expert staff. CellaVision DM96 (CellaVision, Lund, Sweden) is a digital hematology analyzer available for advanced morphological analysis of blood films including intracellular parasites. Here, we evaluated the CellaVision DM96 Advanced RBC Application for malaria detection in stained peripheral blood (PB) smears. Two hundred and twenty thin PB smear slides (84 P. vivax, 14 P. falciparum, 122 negative controls) were stained with Wright-Giemsa using automated slidemaker/strainers of Beckman Coulter hematology systems (LH780, Beckman Coulter Inc...

Fleas from the Paranaense Forest in northeastern Argentina are studied. Herein we provided a list of specimens identified, which includes host species and geographical distribution for each taxa, as well as some comments on the morphology, distribution and epidemiological importance when available. The following eight species and subspecies of fleas belonging to four families were identified: Ctenocephalides felis felis (Pulicidae), Craneopsylla minerva minerva (Stephanocircidae), Polygenis (Polygenis) platensis, Polygenis (Polygenis) roberti beebei, Polygenis (Neopolygenis) pradoi, Polygenis (Neopolygenis) pygaerus (Rhopalopsyllidae), Adoratopsylla (Adoratopsylla) antiquorum antiquorum, and Adoratopsylla (Tritopsylla) intermedia intermedia (Ctenophthalmidae)...

Gymnodactylus darwinii is an endemic lizard from Atlantic Rainforest. Ecological aspects of your parasitic fauna are still unknown. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to know the composition of parasitic fauna of G. darwinii in an Atlantic Rainforest fragment, as well to test the influence of the size, sex and seasonality on parasitological indices. The study was carried out in two conservation units: Mata do Camucim and Mata do Tapacurá, both located in the municipality of São Lourenço da Mata, Pernambuco state, northeast region of Brazil...

Dengue is one of the most rapidly spreading infectious diseases prevalent throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. In absence of specific medications and vaccines, the sole method of disease prevention relies on vector control mainly using insecticides. But with the advent of Insecticide resistance, worldwide vector control programs are facing failure. In this study, eleven different Ae. albopictus population from sub-Himalayan districts of West Bengal, India were investigated as per WHO protocols to find out the current status of insecticide susceptibility against DDT, permethrin and propoxur...

The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, has facilitated the re-emergence of dengue virus (DENV) and emergence of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas and the Caribbean. The recent transmission of these arboviruses in the continental United States has been limited, to date, to South Florida and South Texas despite Ae. aegypti occurring over a much larger geographical region within the country. The main goal of our study was to provide the first long term longitudinal study of Ae...

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The intra-species genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium parvum in dairy cattle farms in the central area of Colombia was investigated using a multilocus fragment typing approach with nine variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci and the gp60 gene. Genomic DNA of 70 C. parvum isolates from pre-weaned calves in 32 farms was analysed. Most markers showed two (ML1, MSB, CP47, and MSC6-7) or three alleles (5B12, Cgd2_3850, and Cgd6_5400), although they exhibited a major allele accounting for more than 69% of specimens, which explains their low discriminatory index...

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) and influenza A virus (IAV) are two important pathogens which can infect humans and various animals causing public health problems. In this study, the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with HEV and IAV infection in farmed wild boars were investigated in China. A total of 758 serum samples were collected from farmed wild boars between 2015 and 2016, and antibodies against HEV and IAV were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using commercially available kits...

Microorganisms harbored by Chilean autochthonous ticks have been scarcely studied and current knowledge is restricted to three species of hard ticks only. The current study aimed to assess the presence of Anaplasmataceae, Borrelia and Hepatozoon agents in ticks collected directly from the environment, on reptiles, birds and mammals in twelve localities from northern, central and southern regions of the country and Antarctica. Ticks were identified by means of a morphological and molecular approach. PCR detections point the occurrence of an Anaplasma-like agent and a relapsing fever Borrelia sp...

Increased rates of exposure to Toxoplasma gondii have been found in patients with psychiatric disorders globally, but there is scarce information about the epidemiology of T. gondii infection in psychiatric patients in Zhejiang Province, Southeastern China. In a case-control survey, we measured IgG and IgM class antibodies against T. gondii in 798 patients from a public psychiatric hospital in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, and in 681 non-psychiatric controls from the general population in the same region...

Plasmodium ovale spp. are two of the six species of apicomplexan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium commonly causing disease in humans. A recent phylogeny study has identified both Plasmodium ovale species (P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri) as two sympatric occurring species. The actual prevalence and clinical relevance of P. ovale spp. are likely underestimated due to low parasitemia and mixed infections, which pose a major challenge to microscopic diagnosis and are frequently undetectable using malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs)...

In the last decades, major research efforts have been done to investigate the insecticidal activity of plant-based products against mosquitoes. This is a modern and timely challenge in parasitology, aimed to reduce the frequent overuse of synthetic pesticides boosting resistance development in mosquitoes and causing serious threats to human health and environment. This review covers the huge amount of literature available on plant extracts tested as mosquito larvicides, particularly aqueous and alcoholic ones, due to their easy formulation in water without using surfactants...

Members of the Maculatus group are important malaria vectors in the border regions of Thailand. However, the role of each species in malaria transmission remains unclear because of their highly similar morphologies, making them difficult to be differentiated. Whereas An. pseudowillmori may be identified by the color pattern of some scales on abdomen and wings, the distinction between An. maculatus and An. sawadwongporni relies on the wings only. Scales are labile structures, as they may be accidentally removed during capture and transportation to the laboratory...