It has become increasingly clear that life-history patterns among the vertebrates have been shaped by the plethora and variety of immunological risks associated with parasitic faunas in their environments. Immunological competence could very well be the most important determinant of life-time reproductive success and fitness for many species. It is generally assumed by evolutionary ecologists that providing immunological defences to minimise such risks to the host is costly in terms of necessitating trade-offs with other nutrient-demanding processes such as growth, reproduction, and thermoregulation. Studies devoted to providing assessments of such costs and how they may force evolutionary trade-offs among life-history characters are few, especially for wild vertebrate species, and their results are widely scattered throughout the literature. In this paper we attempt to review this literature to obtain a better understanding of energetic and nutritional costs for maintaining a normal immune system and examine how costly it might be for a host who is forced to up-regulate its immunological defence mechanisms. The significance of these various costs to ecology and life history trade-offs among the vertebrates is explored. It is concluded that sufficient evidence exists to support the primary assumption that immunological defences are costly to the vertebrate host.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3546398.pdf

Trade‐offs in evolutionary immunology: just what is the cost of immunity?

Ivermectin and abamectin, members of the avermectin family of compounds, were introduced to the market in the 1980's as a veterinary antiparasitic drug and agricultural pesticide, respectively. Their acceptance and commercial success have been remarkable; both are highly effective and in worldwide use. The efficacy of ivermectin in river blindness has expanded the interest in its use in human medicine. In response to the intense scientific and industrial interest in ivermectin and abamectin and the likelihood that they will be forerunners of an expanding family of drugs, this comprehensive monograph satisfies the need for a review and synthesis of current knowledge about the use of these substances in crop protection as well as in cattle, sheep, swine, horses, dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, and in man. This overview presents chemical, biochemical, and microbiological data, as well as pharmacological, safety, and environmental aspects and covers practical use of the compounds as antiparasitic and pesticide agents, as well as the available safety data that have emerged from the clinical experience with human applications.

Ivermectin and abamectin.

The sustainability of aquaculture has been debated intensely since 2000, when a review on the net contribution of aquaculture to world fish supplies was published in Nature. This paper reviews the developments in global aquaculture from 1997 to 2017, incorporating all industry sub-sectors and highlighting the integration of aquaculture in the global food system. Inland aquaculture—especially in Asia—has contributed the most to global production volumes and food security. Major gains have also occurred in aquaculture feed efficiency and fish nutrition, lowering the fish-in–fish-out ratio for all fed species, although the dependence on marine ingredients persists and reliance on terrestrial ingredients has increased. The culture of both molluscs and seaweed is increasingly recognized for its ecosystem services; however, the quantification, valuation, and market development of these services remain rare. The potential for molluscs and seaweed to support global nutritional security is underexploited. Management of pathogens, parasites, and pests remains a sustainability challenge industry-wide, and the effects of climate change on aquaculture remain uncertain and difficult to validate. Pressure on the aquaculture industry to embrace comprehensive sustainability measures during this 20-year period have improved the governance, technology, siting, and management in many cases. The volume of global aquaculture production has tripled since 2000 with positive trends in environmental performance, but the sector faces mounting challenges including pathogen management, pollution, climate change, and increasing dependence on land-based resource systems.

/pdf/a-20-year-retrospective-review-of-global-aquaculture-348juu7y75.pdf

A 20-year retrospective review of global aquaculture.

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) and cystic echinococcosis (CE) are severe helminthic zoonoses. Echinococcus multilocularis (causative agent of AE) is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere where it is typically maintained in a wild animal cycle including canids as definitive hosts and rodents as intermediate hosts. The species Echinococcus granulosus, Echinococcus ortleppi, Echinococcus canadensis and Echinococcus intermedius are the causative agents of CE with a worldwide distribution and a highly variable human disease burden in the different endemic areas depending upon human behavioural risk factors, the diversity and ecology of animal host assemblages and the genetic diversity within Echinococcus species which differ in their zoonotic potential and pathogenicity. Both AE and CE are regarded as neglected zoonoses, with a higher overall burden of disease for CE due to its global distribution and high regional prevalence, but a higher pathogenicity and case fatality rate for AE, especially in Asia. Over the past two decades, numerous studies have addressed the epidemiology and distribution of these Echinococcus species worldwide, resulting in better-defined boundaries of the endemic areas. This chapter presents the global distribution of Echinococcus species and human AE and CE in maps and summarizes the global data on host assemblages, transmission, prevalence in animal definitive hosts, incidence in people and molecular epidemiology.

/pdf/global-distribution-of-alveolar-and-cystic-echinococcosis-51b6ql1ua1.pdf

Global Distribution of Alveolar and Cystic Echinococcosis.

Nutrition-parasite interaction

Pathophysiology of infection with gastrointestinal nematodes in domestic ruminants: recent developments.

Angiostrongylus vasorum and Eucoleus aerophilus in foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain.

Food fraud is an intentional act for economic gain. It poses a risk to food integrity, the economy, public health and consumers’ ethics. Seafood is one commodity which has endured extensive fraudulent activity owing to its increasing consumer demand, resource limitations, high value and complex supply chains. It is essential that these fraudulent opportunities are revealed, the risk is evaluated and countermeasures for mitigation are assigned. This can be achieved through mapping of the seafood supply chains and identifying the vulnerability analysis critical control points (VACCP), which can be exposed, infiltrated and exploited for fraudulent activity. This research systematically maps the seafood supply chain for three key commodities: finfish, shellfish and crustaceans in the United Kingdom. Each chain is comprised of multiple stakeholders across numerous countries producing a diverse range of products distributed globally. For each supply chain the prospect of fraud, with reference to species substitution, fishery substitution, illegal, unreported and unregulated substitution, species adulteration, chain of custody abuse, catch method fraud, undeclared product extension, modern day slavery and animal welfare, has been identified and evaluated. This mapping of the fraudulent opportunities within the supply chains provides a foundation to rank known and emerging risks and to develop a proactive mitigation plan which assigns control measures and responsibility where vulnerabilities exist. Further intelligence gathering and management of VACCPs of the seafood supply chains may deter currently unknown or unexposed fraudulent opportunities.

/pdf/the-seafood-supply-chain-from-a-fraudulent-perspective-1vj6nj6nwr.pdf

MT Fox

Papers

Pathophysiology of infection with gastrointestinal nematodes in domestic ruminants: recent developments.

Angiostrongylus vasorum and Eucoleus aerophilus in foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain.

The Seafood Supply Chain from a Fraudulent Perspective

Pathophysiology of infection with Ostertagia ostertagi in cattle.

Spatial and temporal investigation of Echinococcus granulosus coproantigen prevalence in farm dogs in South Powys, Wales.