Main description:

In spite of the availability of modern broad-spectrum anthelmintic drugs, the prevention and control of helminth zoonoses remain a challenge to human and veterinary parasitologists and to physicians and veterina- rians working on the field. Although the life cycles of most helminths of zoonotic importance are well known, there are still major gaps in our knowledge especially in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis and treat- ment The International Colloquium on Helminth Zoonoses held at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, 11-12 December 1986, laid emphasis on more recent advances made in the control and epidemiology of these zoonotic diseases. The disease complexes echinococcosis/hydatidosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis and the larva migrans-syndrome were dealth with in considerable detail. In the first chapter the phenomenon of strain variation in Echinococcus spp. is examined in the light of newer findings. The progress made in recent years towards a more specific diagnosis and drug targeting in hydatidosis is reported. In the second chapter recent advances in immunisation and treatment of cysticercosis are dealt with.
The possibili- ty of the existence of strain differences in Taenia saginata is also dis- cussed. The third chapter is devoted to trematode zoonoses with particular reference to the situation in South-east Asia, Senegal (schistosomiasis) and Liberia (paragonimiasis). In the last chapter the larva migrans- syndrome is treated in detail with special attention to its etiology and and diagnosis. Reports on lesser known nematode zoonoses like mammomono- gamosis and oesophagostomiasis are included.

Contents:

Section 1: Echinococcosis - Hydatidosis.- Changing concepts in the microecology, macroecology and epidemiology of hydatid disease.- The fertility of hydatid cysts in food animals in Greece.- A failure to infect dogs with Echinococcus granulosus protoscoleces of human origin.- Experimental infection of sheep and monkeys with the camel strain of Echinococcus granulosus.- Characterization of the hydatid disease organism, Echinococcus granulosus from Kenya using cloned DNA markers.- Kinetics of molecular transfer across the tegument of protoscoleces and hydatid cysts of Echinococcus granulosus and the relevance of these studies to drug targeting.- Diagnosis of ovine hydatidosis by Immunoelectrophoresis.- Characterisation of Echinococcus granulosus proteins and antigens from hydatid cyst fluid.- Existence of an urban cycle of Echinococcus granulosus in Central Tunisia.- Echinococcosis eradication in Cyprus.- Section 2: Taeniasis - Cysticercosis.- Taeniasis: the tantalizing target.- Observations on possible strain differences in Taenia saqinata.- Immunoprophylaxis of Taenia saqinata cysticercosis.- An important focus of porcine and human cysticercosis in West Cameroon.- Cysticercus fasciolaris in mice: a laboratory model for selecting new drug on cysticercosis.- Large-scale use of chemotherapy of taeniasis as a control measure for T. solium infections.- Section 3: Trematode Zoonoses.- Zoonotic trematodiasis in South-east and Far-east Asian countries.- Observations on human and animal schistosomiasis in Senegal.- Occurrence of human lung fluke infection in an endemic area in Liberia.- Section 4: Larva migrans and other nematode zoonoses.- Larva migrans in perspective.- Immunological studies on Ascaris suum infections in mice.- Toxocara vitulorum: a possible agent of larva migrans in humans?.- Antigenic and biochemical analysis of the E.S. molecules of Toxocara canis infective larvae.- Ocular toxocariasis: role of IgE in the pathogenesis of the syndrome and diagnostic implications.- Serological arguments for multiple etiology of visceral larva migrans.- Experimental Trichinella spiralis infection in two horses.- Intestinal mast cells: possible regulation and their function in the gut of Trichinella spiralis infected small rodents.- Variable levels of host immunoglobulin on microfilariae of Brugia pahanoi isolated from the blood of cats.- Mammomonogamosis.- Frequency of symptomatic human oesophagostomiasis (helminthoma) in Northern Togo.- Index of Subjects.