Black swallowwort is a difficult to control invasive vine that thrives in natural areas and perennial cropping systems in northeastern North America. To date, though, little is known about how the weed responds to mowing or to various herbicidal controls.
we are delighted to announce that the new front cover image for Parasitology is of the human whipworm, Trichuris trichiura. We congratulate Dr Lee Haines, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who submitted this beautiful image as part of her photographic portfolio.
Though planting crops more densely can be an effective approach for suppressing weeds in problem areas, many growers fail to adopt this approach because of the high cost of seed. New research featured in the journal Weed Science, though, describes a bioeconomic model growers can use to overcome that cost barrier.
In a minority of societies, kinship follows the female line rather than the male line. The men in these matrilineal societies invest in their sisters’ offspring more than their own, which is a puzzle given that they are more related to the latter than the former.…
Tropical forests harbour a very high proportion of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, supporting wildlife communities that are more diverse and more species-rich than any other habitat.
I got into lichenology through a colleague, Dr George Mugambi, then working at the National Museums of Kenya, who was at the time undertaking research for his PhD at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Bustards are deeply challenging birds to conserve. Their grassland habitats are in irresistible demand for food production—both agriculture and livestock—throughout their ranges in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Eggshell quality has been a major economic concern to egg producers as it could be reason for serious economic losses. Eggshell has different functions such as protecting against physical damage and pathogens coming from the external environment and providing nutrients necessary for embryonic development, especially calcium.
Nematodes are one of the most speciose groups of animals, and a significant proportion of them are parasitic.
Over the past 18 months, several authors and two Guest Editors have worked together on a Special Issue (SI) on Fish Parasites for the Cambridge University Press journal, Parasitology, the longest-running journal among periodicals in the field. Our SI contains 13 articles, including reviews and original research articles, co-authored by world-leading experts in individual research fields of fish parasitology.
This year, Mona Suleiman, who is doing her PhD at the University of Bath, was the winner of the award. The competition this year was high, but Mona’s presentation stood out for the fundamental impacts of her research that were explained in a very comprehensible way.
Cameroon has pledged to restore over a quarter of its land or 12,062,800 ha, Guatemala has pledged over 10% of its land for restoration with 1.2 million ha, India committed over 8% of its land, a staggering 26,500,000 ha to restoration, and the list of countries pledging hectares of land to restoration continues.
Over 50 million waterbirds of more than 200 species migrate along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) each year. However, many of their populations have declined severely in recent decades.
Welcome to our “Meet the Editors” series, where we interview the editorial team about their work and their relationship to the journal. In this post we meet Dr Cinzia Cantacessi, Editor for Parasitology.
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is Global epidemiology and molecular biology of Taenia multiceps: a comparative meta-analysis and in silico analysis study and is freely available for one month.…
California’s commercial orchards produce a variety of crops valued by consumers – from stone fruit to almonds and walnuts. A successful harvest depends on the effective management of weeds that can interfere with irrigation lines, compete with crops for water, and impede sweepers and other harvesting equipment.
Okra, is an important vegetable crop worldwide. The high nutritional attributes attract customer for a preferred food that assured sound health. But the rising concern of insect incidence facilitated by environmental factor put worries to million of farmers across the globe.
Through their travels, migratory birds link countries and continents. Many populations of migratory birds are in decline and more than 200 species are currently globally threatened.…
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “Cell repertoire and proliferation of germinative cells of the model cestode Mesocestoides corti” and is freely available for one month.…
Vultures are keystone species that perform a vital ecosystem service by disposing of carrion. Veterinary use of the painkilling drug diclofenac to treat livestock has caused the collapse of vulture populations throughout South Asia, with dramatic ecological and socio-economic consequences.
The benefits of data sharing and improved data access are widely acknowledged, potentially resulting in significant increases in global GDP. In practice, however, data owners are, for obvious reasons, often reluctant to share their data, especially if it has not yet been published.
Cover crops can be a valuable tool for weed suppression. They compete with weeds for light, water, nutrients and space and reduce the ability of weeds to germinate, grow and reproduce. But which is better – planting a single cover crop or using one of the new cover crop mixtures that are now readily available?
More and more research is finding inflammation as a potential contributing factor towards to the development of various mental illnesses. A systematic review was conducted to determine the association between parasitic infection and mental illnesses in various African populations. Two parasite groups were evaluated; helminths and protozoans, and four mental illness classifications; depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, schizotypal disorders and unspecified mental illnesses.
From January 2023, Parasitology will become an Open Access (OA) journal within Cambridge University Press, where a total of 14 other hosted journals within the Life Sciences are now fully OA.
Direct exploitation of organisms has been recognised as the second biggest driver of global extinction risk, and over a third of all bird species may be affected by international trade. Trade in living or dead birds taken from the wild is a multi-billion dollar industry that represents a major direct threat to the survival of many species and is a source of invasive species and zoonotic diseases. However, it has also been argued that trade may be sustainable in some areas, making important contributions to livelihoods and the viability of natural areas.
Palmer amaranth has a well-earned reputation as one of the most problematic weeds in agriculture. It is known for its many weedy traits and for its propensity to evolve resistance to herbicides of varying sites of action. An article featured in the latest issue of the journal Weed Science shows the number of tools available to control this weedy invader is continuing to shrink.
Downy brome is an annual winter grass that has invaded millions of acres of western rangelands and wildlands. It can outcompete native vegetation and can increase the frequency and severity of wildfires by leaving behind dense mats of litter at the end of its growing season.
Evolutionary theory has long been used to explain species and sex differences, but individual differences in cognition and behaviour have mostly been left out of the picture.
Researchers from the University of Missouri recently conducted two field studies to explore the effectiveness of electricity in weed control. They used a tractor attachment called The Weed Zapper™ to electrocute eight types of weeds common in soybean crops, including herbicide-resistant waterhemp.
For more than 40 years, the Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) programme of BirdLife International has aimed to identify, document, safeguard, manage and monitor a network of sites of international significance for birds. The global list now extends to more than 13,500 IBAs, and is among the most extensive site-based, spatially explicit, systematically rigorous biodiversity datasets yet compiled.
Breeders estimate genetic gains over time to assess progress made for characteristics being improved through crossing, testing and selection in the target population of environments. Knowing and understanding the genetic gain rates helps on measuring the previous work and to fine-tune the strategy for crop betterment.
As the global human population approaches the 8 billion mark, it is sobering to think that around one third of these people will be carrying a parasitic helminth (worm) infection.…
Germination/emergence assays are relatively easy to perform, by following clear and standardised procedures. Most often, we take samples of seeds and we put them in Petri dishes/boxes/pots in some selected conditions (relating to, e.g., humidity content, light and temperature). We inspect those containers according to a tight schedule (e.g., daily) and, at each inspection, we count the number of germinated/emerged seeds and remove them from the containers.
Public interest in nature and the environment is at an all-time high thanks to many factors including new species discoveries, nature documentaries and the unfortunate reality of climate change. One important method for gauging this interest is Google Trends.
To celebrate World Albatross Day on 19 June 2022, this month’s third centenary collection of BCI papers focuses on the theme of seabirds and bycatch.…
The use of artificial intelligence with sensing techniques for the management of insect pests and diseases in cotton
Herbicide-resistant crops are now commonplace throughout the U.S. and Canada. But are they friend or foe when it comes to the prevention and management of herbicide-resistant weeds?
The languages we speak today are an incredibly rich record of the past. By analyzing the words they’re made up of, and the rules that guide how those words have evolved, we can gain insights into cultural contacts and the movements of peoples reaching back thousands of years.
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “A remarkable assemblage of ticks from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber” and is available open access.…
When I first worked in Madagascar in 2005, I was carrying out biodiversity surveys in little known forests, but by the time I left a decade later I was spending much more time working with rural farming and fisher communities that I was with the birds and the beasts.…
Evidence of hunting, harvesting and persecution of wild birds dates back to the earliest of human societies. However, as human populations have grown, and technologies have advanced, the exploitation of wild birds has increased dramatically.…
A new analysis of ancient faeces found at the site of a prehistoric village near Stonehenge has uncovered evidence of the eggs of parasitic worms, suggesting the inhabitants feasted on the internal organs of cattle and fed leftovers to their dogs.…
It takes a lot of people to publish an issue of Parasitology. Each year the journal successfully publishes 14 issues, with over 170 papers contained therein. Essential, of course, are our dedicated authors but there are also many “behind-the-scenes” people crucial in making sure we disseminate high quality research into the public domain
Eurasian watermilfoil is a widespread invasive weed found in many lakes, ponds and other bodies of water. It can form dense mats that overtake native plants, destroy wildlife habitats and inhibit water sports.…
Traditional models of conformity posit that individuals respond to the frequency of a behaviour amongst a social group only. This gives the impression that conformity functions like a rule-of-thumb to ‘always copy the majority’. This view does not align with recent research which shows that our use of social learning strategies is likely to be flexible. To extend this research, we ask whether an individuals’ decision to conform to the majority of a group will be flexible based on certain social information about the group from whom they learn.
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “Honey bees with a drinking problem: potential routes of Nosema ceranae spore transmission” and is available open access.…
Cystoisospora suis is an intestinal protozoan parasite of swine, especially of suckling piglets. It severely affects the host by causing diarrhoea and reduced weight gain. This considerably impairs animal health, welfare and productivity. The parasite has a worldwide distribution, and infections are very common. The parasite belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa, which also includes other species of great medical and veterinary relevance by causing malaria, toxoplasmosis or coccidiosis.
The evolutionary arms race between parasites and their hosts have been fascinating/puzzling scientists for many years, and current World events have made even clearer about the importance of understanding host-parasite interactions.
Our ever-spreading infrastructure of housing, industry, water, energy and transport networks is destroying and degrading natural habitats. Artificial structures of various kinds, from fences to cell-phone masts, and electricity power lines to wind farms, pose a direct threat to many birds.…
The BCI Centenary Collections 2022 marks 100 years since the founding of the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) – now BirdLife International, the largest international partnership for nature conservation.…
Scouting fields for weeds in person can be a time-consuming process. UAVs and other remote sensing tools may soon be able to automate the process, though.…
Welcome to our “Meet the Editors” series, where we interview the editorial team about their work and their relationship to the journal. In this post we meet Dr Lisa Ranford-Cartwright, Editor for Parasitology
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “Immunochemotherapy for visceral leishmaniasis: combinatorial action of Miltefosine plus LBSapMPL vaccine improves adaptative Th1 immune response with control of splenic parasitism in experimental hamster model” and is freely available for one month. …
Water is a basic subsistence need for all forms of life, but its supply is limited. Therefore, increasing water conservation efforts worldwide is essential and particularly under the current increasing warming.…
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “Lurking in the water: testing eDNA metabarcoding as a tool for ecosystem-wide parasite detection” and is freely available for one month.…
The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is “Brain Food: rethinking food-borne toxocariasis” and is freely available. Toxocara canis and T.…
This year a new 275-page book, with 21 chapters, entitled "The Tale of a Man, a Worm and a Snail: The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative" written by Professor Alan Fenwick OBE, with the help of Wendie Norris and Becky McCall, first appeared in January. It is part autobiography, part scientific narrative, with an impressive bibliography. Typical of CABI publishers, the book has a high printed production standard with several colour photographs and schematic graphics that embellish its narrative.
It is clear nonnative plant invaders can devastate native plant communities. But weed management efforts can also hold the potential to cause harm.
Due to their ability to perform cation exchange, zeolite applications were found in various industries, such as in the pharmaceutical industry, petrochemical industry.
When we think of the human roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, or the human whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, we tend to focus upon the similarities between these two parasites. Why is this so?
As an ecologist, I am interested in conserving forgotten crop landraces and vanishing cropping systems of indigenous agrarian societies. Indigenous food production systems are always polycrop systems, growing diverse food and non-food crops on marginal lands, depending no external materials (e.g. agrochemicals, machiney, fossil fuel). Dozens of experimental studies proved the superior productive efficacy of multiple cropping systems, growing mostly 2 or 3 crops), over monocultures promoted by modern, industrial agriculture.
Listen to @BBCRadio4's Start the Week, featuring @NineDotsPrize winner @jkkusiak, talking about her book, 'Radically Legal'. Learn how a group of ordinary people inspired the book when they reclaimed over 240,000 apartments back from corporate landlords 🔗
Start the Week - ‘Left behind’, but not forgotten - BBC Sounds
Tom Sutcliffe with Paul Collier, Joanna Kusiak and Matthew Xia.
cup.org
Sparking curiosity from geopolitics in Japan to the cultural implications of AI!
Explore the seven new titles we are welcoming to Cambridge and the seven #OpenAccess titles we are launching in 2025 🚀 🔗 https://cup.org/3yhAuAx
Our Flip it Open programme has published titles from authors @GibbsSpike, @liederfollower and Inés Valdez!
Discover how we are funding the publication of #OpenAccess books without changing purchasing habits 🔗 https://cup.org/4diDHii
;
