Annals of parasitology最新文献

Long-term changes in weather conditions on Earth have a significant impact on the world around us. These include not only increasingly extreme weather events such as droughts and heatwaves. These effects can be felt throughout the natural environment, influencing the spread of parasites and the diseases they transmit. Climate change can alter the range and life cycles of parasites, and accelerate and lengthen the activity period of vectors. Four species are described in this manuscript: Balamuthia mandrillaris, Naegleria fowleri, Trypanosoma cruzi and Strongyloides stercoralis. Balamuthia mandrillaris is a species of an opportunistic cyst-forming free-living amoeba. The main habitat is moist soil and freshwater reservoirs. It could be pathogenic to humans. The amoeba consumes cutaneous tissue and excretes enzymes leading to an immune response of the host. Naegleria fowleri is a free-living amoeba that might cause primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) whose mortality rate reaches as much as 98%. Trophozoites enter the body through the nasal cavity while underwater. Most often cases of PAM include immunocompetent children and young adults. Trypanosoma cruzi is a flagellate protozoan with life cycle between hematophagous insects of the Triatominae subfamily and various mammal species including human. Trypanosoma cruzi causes the Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). Strongyloidiasis, caused by the parasite Strongyloides stercoralis, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD). Infection starts when the host walks barefoot on soil contaminated with filariform larvae that penetrate the skin. Immunosuppression in infected patients can lead to hiperinfection and death.

Gut microbiota, consisting of multiple beneficial microorganisms, significantly impacts host health. Recent investigations have revealed that the gut microbiota influences the pathogenicity of eukaryotes such as Blastocystis, and conversely, the protist can impact the composition of the bacterial community. This review focuses on both, beneficial and adverse interactions between Blastocystis and human gut microbiota communities. Blastocystis can modulate both the structure and composition of the gut microbiota. Research has demonstrated that Blastocystis colonization is associated with increased gut microbiota diversity, a higher abundance of beneficial bacteria like Firmicutes and Clostridiales, and reduced Bacteroides, indicating a potential beneficial relation. However, its exact role is still unknown, and it may be associated with dysbiosis in some gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Moreover, some researchers presented the contradictory study results of interactions between specific Blastocystis subtypes and gut bacteria. The bidirectional influence between microorganisms is complex, with distinct subtypes that can display varying effects on the microbiota. These discrepant findings might reflect variations in the host factors, microbial environment, or strain-level diversity.

Purpose: Candidozyma auris (syn. Candida auris) is a hazardous multi-drug resistant yeast that causes severe infections in hospitalized patients. Many uncertainties exist around its antifungal resistance, clinical presentation, dominant clade, and isolation sites in the European setting. Therefore, to properly assess these characteristics, we systematically reviewed case reports in Europe between the first case described in 2009 and January 2023.

Methods: We conducted this systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines. Cases of both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients have been included. We extracted patients' demographics, C. auris isolation site, identified clade, clinical presentation, clinical outcome, as well as treatment. The case reports have been assessed for quality using standardized tools.

Results: Out of 251 identified articles, 12 reports from 10 European countries describing 15 cases are included In the review. The youngest affected person was an infant and the oldest was 74 years old.  Blood was the most common isolation site, reported in 26% of reported cases. The fatality rate could not have been reported due to the high number of asymptomatic patients and comorbidities or other infections in symptomatic patients. About 91% of reported isolates were resistant to fluconazole, 18% to amphotericin B and none was resistant to echinocandins. The quality assessment revealed that about 33% of case reports had a high risk of bias.

Conclusions: Our results show that any age group can be affected. The antimicrobials of choice in the European setting seem to be the echinocandins, although proper standardized susceptibility breakpoints are needed.

Long-term parasitological studies of non-human primates (NHPs) kept in zoological gardens offer valuable insights into host-parasite relationships in controlled settings. Despite regular veterinary supervision and preventative measures, many surveys have shown that captive primates often harbour diverse intestinal parasites, including species of zoonotic importance. This work summarises the historical and current parasitological research conducted on primates at Wrocław Zoological Garden, Poland, and highlights changes in diagnostic techniques, parasite diversity, and infection patterns over time. Early studies, employing classical coproscopic methods such as direct smear, decantation, and flotation, reported an overall parasite prevalence of around 40%, mainly nematodes. Later investigations expanded sampling strategies, enabling assessment of anthelmintic efficacy and resistance in specific taxa. Environmental and managerial factors - including close contact with caretakers and visitors, limited enclosure space, and inadequate pest control - were identified as key contributors to transmission. Over the past twenty years, the use of molecular diagnostic tools has considerably improved detection sensitivity, particularly for intestinal protozoa that were often missed by traditional microscopy. A notable shift in the parasite community composition has been observed: helminth prevalence has decreased, while protozoan infections have become more frequent. Whether these changes are due to methodological advancements or actual alterations in parasite ecology remains uncertain. Overall, the findings indicate that enhancements in husbandry, enclosure hygiene, and veterinary care have effectively reduced helminth transmission, yet protozoan infections continue to be common. Ongoing monitoring with molecular methods, alongside comparative studies across European zoological institutions, is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the long-term dynamics of primate parasitism in captivity.

Sika deer, mainly of Japanese origin, have been introduced into the British Isles and central Europe and established free-ranging populations, expanding in several countries. Introduction of the sika deer was associated with the transfer of Spiculopteragia houdemeri which has been reported for the first time in 2003 from Germany and thereafter from sika deer and other cervid species in some countries in Europe. Surveys of livestock parasites have shown that cervid-specific gastrointestinal nematodes of native deer occur in natural infections in cattle and sheep, usually at low level, and infections were experimentally transferred. However, to date there is no such information for sika deer-specific nematodes to livestock. To investigate the establishment of sika deer-derived gastrointestinal nematodes in domestic ruminants, three calves and two lambs were challenged with mixed burdens of infective larvae (~90% ostertagids, ~10% Oesophagostomum) cultured from the faeces of free-ranging sika deer; calves received 20,000 or 30,000 larvae, lambs 12,000 or 13,000. Establishment rate of ostertagids varied from 0.4% to 3.1% in the calves and was 1.3% and 8.4% in the lambs. Spiculopteragia houdemeri, index ostertagid of Japanese sika deer, was the dominant species, recovered from all animals. In addition, Ostertagia leptospicularis and Spiculopteragia boehmi, index ostertagids of native roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus), respectively, were isolated from calf and lamb and Cooperia pectinata from one lamb. Oesophagostomum venulosum established in the lambs at ~6% but no Oesophagostomum was found in any calf. This investigation indicates that both calves and lambs are permissive to the sika deer-specific S. houdemeri and other deer-derived nematodes which reached maturity, but susceptibility to infections was apparently low.

Most often, Echinococcus parasitizes in the liver, causing the need for surgical treatment, the results of which currently do not meet expert expectations due to the high frequency of postoperative complications and the risk of relapse. The aim of the study is to improve the results of surgical treatment of liver echinococcosis by improving the tactical aspects of treatment and elimination of the residual cavity after echinococcectomy to prevent the development of purulent-septic complications. The object of the study was 442 patients with liver echinococcosis treated in the abdominal surgery of the Khorezm Regional Multidisciplinary Medical Center for the period from 2010 to 2023. To achieve the research goal and address the objectives, the following methods were used: general clinical, biochemical, instrumental and statistical methods. When determining the tactics and volume of surgical intervention, we recommend using the proposed method for treating the residual cavity using ultrasonic cavitation and a 0.02% Decasan solution, which minimized the development of purulent-septic complications in the immediate and long-term period after surgery. The new approach significantly reduced postoperative drainage needs (63.8% vs 36.6%, P < 0.001), complications (12.5% vs 5.4%, P < 0.001), and increased uncomplicated recovery (93.1% vs 80.0%). Drainage duration decreased from 11.3% to 3.5% in the long-term follow-up.

The aim of this study was to determine the presence of blood parasites in dice snake (Natrix tesellata) from Pirallahi Island, located off the western coast of the Caspian Sea of Azerbaijan. The dice snake is one of the most widespread and common species of the herpetofauna of Azerbaijan. This species of snakes represents an important link in the natural balance, since included in various biocenotic connections. A total of 67 specimens of dice snake individuals were captured during spring and summer 2021-2024. Blood sampling was carried out from the caudal vein by insulin syringe. The blood smears were stained with Giemsa solution and examined by light microscopy for haemoparasites. Microscopical examination of the blood smears revealed that 23 snakes of 67 (15.4%) were infected with Serpentoplasma sp. Multiply infected erythrocytes with one to three parasites were unusual, with most host cells containing a single inclusion. Infected thrombocytes were not detected. The parasites contained round-to-oval inclusions from small, anaplasmoid-like bodies, vacuoles with a dot or two of apparent chromatin on their margin or without chromatin dots. The structures were intracytoplasmic, measured 3-3.8 Å~ 2.5-3.3 μm and occurred as rounded vacuole-like structures, one in each infected erythrocyte. This is the first finding of haemoparasites in dice snakes in Azerbaijan.

Infection with Entamoeba histolytica is widespread and cosmopolitan, but is particularly common in hot zone countries in areas with poor sanitary and hygienic conditions, a lack of access to safe drinking water, and noncompliance with food hygiene. Currently, no cases of indigenous E. histolytica infections have been registered in Poland; only cases imported from areas with a hot climate zone have been reported. So far, no severe extraintestinal amoebiasis has been diagnosed in Poland in people returning from the Mediterranean area. We report an unusual case of concomitant large liver abscess complicated by small bowel obstruction in an Italian immigrant with chronic myelodysplastic leukaemia who had been in Poland for 10 years. The patient did not present with clinical symptoms of colitis like diarrhoea. The patient had not travelled outside Europe and had never been in tropical areas. The clinical course of the infection, the results of imaging, laboratory, serological and parasitological tests, and the therapeutic methods used are discussed in detail. Attention is drawn to the need to consider amoebiasis and its dangerous complications in the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain and pathological space-occupying lesions in the liver of unknown etiology in people returning from travel to the Mediterranean climate.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) still have a detrimental effect on public health. Lack of adequate therapy inevitably leads to the decrease in lymphocyte T CD4+ population and emergence of opportunistic infections (OIs) and AIDS-indicators. Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PjP) is recognized as one of the most common OIs in people living with HIV. Giardia intestinalis is a protozoan parasite, commonly reported throughout the world as the most important non-viral cause of human diarrhea. Immunocompromised patients are a high risk group for parasitic infections. Giardiosis usually is self-limiting, however it can cause severe dehydration and malnutrition, especially in immunocompromised individuals. In this work we described a case of 46-year old men, who stoped ART and expanded IRIS symptoms due to PjP and Giardia intestinalis infections. We concluded that parasitic stool examination in HIV/AIDS individuals should be performed to detect asymptomatic protozoa infections, which can lead to diarrhea during ARV treatment. Moreover, determination of the IRIS risk factors may have a detrimental effect on the prevention of severe complications in patients living with AIDS.

The aim of the work is to obtain optimal artificial conditions for the maintenance and breeding of medicinal leeches of the species Hirudo verbana and Hirudo orientalis. 180 medicinal leeches were used in the study: 100 leeches of the H. verbana species and 80 H. orientalis leeches. Four groups of animals were formed: two control and two experimental. Control groups of medicinal leeches were kept using the standard jar method. Experiments according to the developed optimal scheme. As a result of the study, it was found that there were more juveniles obtained from the cocoon per 1 parent leech in the experimental group of medicinal leeches of the H. verbana and H. orientalis species, compared to the control group; appearance of defective cocoons. Mortality of parent leeches during breeding, mortality of juveniles before the first, after the first and sixth feeding decreases on average by more than 50% (P < 0.05) in the experimental group.