Probiotics have been shown to reduce the intensity of Toxocara canis infection in mice. However, larval transmission of this nematode also occurs via transplacental and transmammary routes. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Saccharomyces boulardii probiotic on the vertical transmission of T. canis in Swiss mice. The mice received 107S. boulardii colony-forming units per gram of food. The supplementation began 15 days before mating and was maintained throughout pregnancy and lactation. The animals were inoculated with 300 T. canis embryonated eggs on the 14th day of pregnancy. The presence of larvae was examined in the organs of the females and their offspring. The examined organs included the following: brain, liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, spleen, eye, skeletal muscle (carcass) and mammary glands of lactating females. There was a 42% (P = 0.041) reduction in the number of larvae transmitted to offspring in the group that received probiotic-supplemented food (GI). Additionally, there was a 50% reduction (P = 0.023) in the number of larvae found in the brains of lactating offspring in the GI group. These results reveal the potential of S. boulardii probiotic use as an auxiliary method of controlling visceral toxocariasis.

1. Salting of pasture was explored as a means of controlling stomach worm infestation of grazing sheep.

2. Infestation with Haemonchus contortus was significantly decreased, but that with Ostertagia spp. and Trichostrongylus axei was not significantly affected.

Results of the incorporation of carbon from 14C-glycerol into total, polar and nonpolar lipids in Haemonchus contortus (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae) reveal that the radioactivity lost into the medium as lipids decreased during the first 3 h of incubation. This was followed by a drastic increase during the 4th h. Again, there was a decline by 75% during the 5th h. However, there was a slight increase in the nonpolar lipids during the 5th h.

The in vitro effects of ethanol and aqueous extracts of the medicinal plant Cardiospermum halicacabum on adult worms and microfilariae of Brugia pahangi were investigated. With or without the plant extracts in culture medium, the motility of adult worms, microfilariae and microfilarial release from female worms were monitored daily. After 7 days of culture, viability or tissue damage of adult worms was assessed using the MTT assay. At > 500 μg ml-1, the aqueous extract significantly reduced motility of adult females after 24 h of exposure and adult males after 3 days. The aqueous extract, at > 500 μg ml-1, also significantly reduced microfilarial release from female worms, starting on day 2. The reduction in the motility of adult worms and the pattern of microfilarial release from female worms were concentration and time dependent. The MTT assay results revealed that adult worms cultured in the presence of aqueous extracts at > 500 μg ml-1 were damaged. However, the aqueous extract did not affect the motility of microfilariae with the exception of those in higher concentration extracts. Higher concentrations of ethanol extracts (2 mg ml-1) inhibited both the motility of adult worms and the release of microfilariae from females. Little effect of ethanol extracts was detected by the MTT assay, as only slight damage was caused to worms exposed only to the highest concentration (2 mg ml-1). However, ethanol extract at 500 μg ml-1 rapidly reduced the motility of microfilariae on day 2. The present study revealed that an aqueous extract of C. halicacabum has mild but definite direct macrofilaricidal action on B. pahangi.

The identity and status of the nematode described by van Breda de Haan (1902) from the roots of diseased rice plants in the Dutch East Indies under the name of Tylenchus oryzae have remained more or less conjectural owing to the inadequacy of the original description and the absence of any drawings showing its appearance and structure. The present writer was so doubtful of its validity as a species that in his monograph on the genus Anguillulina (1932) he listed it under “species inquirendae.” In April 1934, Dr. J. van der Vecht of the Institute of Plant Diseases, Buitenzorg, Java, visited this Institute and in the course of conversation informed the writer that in his opinion the species was a valid and distinct one. He kindly promised that on his return to Buitenzorg he would collect specimens of the parasite and forward them for examination. In due course a good number of adult specimens, preserved in 5% formalin, were received and on these it has been possible to base the observations embodied in the following pages. The writer desires to express his thanks to Dr. P. van der Goot, Director of the Institute of Plant Diseases, Buitenzorg and to Dr. van der Vecht for their kindness in making this interesting material available for investigation.

Parabronema skrjabini Rassowska, 1924 was originally described from Russian Turkestan and is known to occur in that region in cattle, camel, sheep and goats. The parasite is also known from okapi (Leiper 1985) dying in the Zoological Gardens, London, and Nubian ibex and Giraffe (Ezzat, 1945) from the Zoological Gardens, Giza, Egypt. A closely related species was described and recorded, respectively, by Vuylsteke, 1985 (Parabronema okapiac) and Leiper, 1985 (Parabronema okapi) from okapi. Van den Berghe and Vuylsteke (1987) reduced P. okapiae to the status of a variety of P. skrjabini.

Eelworm disease of tulips was first reported by Bos (1906) in bulbs of the varieties “La Reine” and “Yellow Prince,” grown at Sassenheim in Holland. Westerdijk (1906) dealt a little more fully with the same outbreak, described the typical brown ring symptoms shown by the bulbs and reported on a few preliminary trials designed to determine whether the parasite belonged to the same biological race as that attacking hyacinths.

Theobald (1912) reported the presence of Tylenchus devastatrix in a number of tulip bulbs (variety unnamed) which had been spnt to him from Dublin, Ireland. In a later note Theobald (1924–25) speaks of a tulip grower in Thanet, Kent, having such bad attacks of eelworm in his bulbs that he decided to remove his nursery to clean ground. Whether the stem eelworm was actually found in affected tulip bulbs was, however, not stated.

Extracts of Anisakis simplex third (L3) and fourth (L4) larval stages were assayed for protein content and activity and properties of α-amylase, glucoamylase and glycogen phosphorylase. Protein content in L4 was twice that in L3. SDS–PAGE applied to both larval stages revealed 22 protein fractions in each, including five stage-specific fractions in each larval stage. The L3 extracts contained three amylase isoenzymes: α1, α2 and α3; their molecular weights were 64, 29 and 21 kDa, respectively. Only one amylase isoenzyme (64 kDa) was found in the L4 extracts. Glycogen in L3 was found to be broken down mostly by hydrolysis because of low glycogen phosphorylase activity. The α-amylase activity in L4 was higher than that in L3 by half and the glycogen phosphorylase activity was ten times higher. In addition, the same enzymes isolated from L3 and L4 were found to differ in their properties. These differences could be manifestations of metabolic adaptations of A. simplex larvae to host switch from fish (L3) to mammals (L4), i.e. adaptations to a new habitat.

By means of scanning electron microscopy, stalked protrusions were observed arising from the outer surface of intact brood capsules of Echinococcus granulosus. Histological studies showed these protrusions to be developing protoscoleces. However, complete development is not attained and the protoscoleces eventually die. It is suggested that external development is a result of overcrowding within the brood capsule.

Favored RLE for use in promoting growth and development of Neoaplectana glaseri in axenic cultures include those made from the livers of rabbits sacrificed late in pregnancy or early postpartum, and used after subsequent refrigerated storage periods of 15–90 days.

In early May 1954 some annual aster plants (Callistephus chinensis) being grown in sterilized compost in seed boxes were received from a nursery at Mildenhall, Suffolk. Many of these plants were severely stunted and malformed, and some were completely dead. At first sight it looked as if the centres of these plants had been eaten out, but subsequent examination revealed a heavy infestation of chrysanthemum eelworm (Aphelenchoides ritzema-bosi), living ectoparasitically among the young leaves. Bunches of nematodes were easily visible in the leaf axils under the low power of a binocular microscope, or even under a good hand lens.

The cysticercoids of Dicranotaenia coronula and Microsomacanthuscompressa are recorded from the stomach contents of Lymnaea peregra and L. stagnalis, and M. compressa also from L. palusiris at the Wentloog level, near Cardiff, South Wales. The cysticercoids of Haploparaksis cirrosa and Kowalewskius parvitla found in the botryoidal tissue of Erpdbdella octoculata from a pool at Llynheilin, New Radnor, are described. The adults of K. parvttla reached maturity in 17 days, in a duckling, and the egg capsules produced contained approximately 100 oncospheres in each.

In December, 1922, Sir John Russell called the writer's attention to some diseased potatoes which had been sent to the Rothamsted Experimental Station. Dr. W. B. Brierley, Head of the Mycology Laboratory, had examined them and had failed to find evidence of fungal attack though the diseased areas bore a superficial resemblance to the appearances presented by “blight” affected potatoes due to Phytophthora infestans. He had, however, found numerous eelworms in the diseased tissues and because of this the writer was asked to examine the material.

Sporocysts capable of producing active miracidia were recovered from the upper branchial chamber of the snail species, Melania tuberculata and M.scabra. The non-ocellate miracidium was characterised by the presence of 22 epidermal plates in four tiers, an apical gland with four nuclei and two penetration glands. Sporocysts were of two types, one producing active miracidia and the other in which daughter sporocysts and miracidia were found. These sporocysts were characterised by the presence of bunches of circular muscles at intervals and also by the presence of a network of muscle fibres at the anterior and posterior one fifth regions. Development of the miracidia took place in compartments. Histochcmical tests were carried out as regards glycogen, protein, lipids and phosphomonoesterases.

Ocular lesions have been reported in patients with schistosomiasis; however, the problem with studying schistosomal infection of the human eye is that biopsies are almost impossible to take, and histopathological examination of suspicious lesions can only be undertaken post-mortem or after enucleation. This work aimed to study the possible effects and pathogenesis of schistosomiasis on the eye. This study involved 55 hamsters; five hamsters remained non-infected and the remaining 50 hamsters were infected with Schistosoma mansoni cercariae. Infected hamsters were sacrificed on weeks 8, 12, 16 and 20 post-infection (pi). Eye sections were prepared and stained for histopathological and immunohistochemical studies. Histopathological changes detected in hamsters infected after 16 and 20 weeks included looseness and oedema of the innermost retinal layers together with hyperplastic polypoid growth. Neither eggs nor granulomata were detected in eye sections throughout the experimental period. Deposition of S. mansoni antigen was revealed in 35% of infected hamsters. Later, on weeks 16 and 20 pi, moderate subepithelial conjuctival deposits and marked subchoroidal and scleral deposition were detected. In conclusion, the deposition of schistosomal antigen and immune complexes may play a pivotal role in the ocular changes that occur in schistosomiasis, even in the absence of detectable Schistosoma eggs. Schistosomiasis should be suspected in cases with unexplained ophthalmological findings, especially in endemic areas.

Largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, is a native fish species with special importance for sport fishing competitions in Nuevo León, Mexico. However, no study has investigated the parasitic fauna of M. salmoides, and no reports are available on monogenean parasites in this fish species. Therefore, we described the monogenean parasites of M. salmoides and the effects of season and fish condition factor in five reservoirs: La Boca (LB), El Cuchillo–Solidaridad (CS), Sombreretillo (S), Laguna Salinillas (LS) and Cerro Prieto (CP). The monogeneans infecting M. salmoides were Clavunculus unguis and Acolpenteron ureteroecetes (collected in all localities), as well as Syncleithrium fusiformis, Haplocleidus furcatus, Clavunculus bifurcatus and Urocleidus principalis (CS). Clavunculus unguis had the highest prevalence in fish from all reservoirs. The abundance of monogeneans was generally greater in late spring to autumn than in winter. Although season was not correlated with abundance (rs = 0.0934, P <  0.0154), the months of highest temperature (from May to September) were positively correlated with parasite abundance. A significant association was observed between fish condition factor and the presence of monogeneans (P <  0.05), except for A. ureteroecetes. Our findings include five new geographic records for C. unguis, S. fusiformis, H. furcatus and C. bifurcatus.

During the survey 571 birds, representing 22 species were examined. Of the birds examined 396 (69·3%) were found to be infected with helminths, and of those infected birds 87. (21·9%) contained trematodes, 276 (69·7%) contained cestodes, 105 (26·5%) contained acanthocephala, and 146 (36·9%) contained nematodes.

Cestodes were found in 18 (81·8%) of the species of birds examined, nematodes in 10 (45·4%), trematodes in 9 (40·9%) and acanthocephala in 7 (31·7%).

The maximum helminth infections of all the bird species examined occurred in the spring. Nestling corvids, with one exception, were not infected with cestodes, but nestling turdids were heavily infected. Fledgling corvids also differed considerably as regards cestode infection. Magpies were 100% infected, jackdaws 35%, and rooks 20% infected.

In a note in the British Medical Journal for February 3rd, 1934, there is mention of the anthelmintic action of garlic oil. One paragraph says that good results have been obtained in the treatment of threadworm in children while a second is more specific and quotes the case of a woman who was cured of Ascaris lumbricoides in 36 hours. She passed a male, 13¾ inches long, a female and a bunch of newly hatched young.

Pulmoverminae is proposed as a new subfamily within the Hemiuridae Lühe, 1901, to receive the genera Pulmovermis Coil and Kuntz, 1960 and Hydrophitrema Sandars, 1960. The genera are compared, and considered to be distinct.

The synthesis and filaricidal activity of l-iso-butoxycarbonyl-4-mcthylpipcrazinc against Litomosoides carinii in Sigmodon hispidus and Dipctaloncma viteae in Mastomys natalcnsis is reported. At an intrapcritoncal or oral dose of 3 mg/kg given for 6 days, the compound removed 91% of the circulating microfilariac but had no effect on adult L carinii. However, it killed all microfilariae and adults of D. viteae at a subcutaneous dose of 50 mg/kg given for 6 days. The compound also possessed ehemoprophylaetic activity against the larvae of L. carinii and D. viteae at a dose of 30 and 50 mg/kg respectively.