The June issue of the journal comprises papers presented or arising from the tenth European Multicolloqium of Parasitology (EMOP) in Paris, August 2008. Five papers are included from the session on ‘Non- tropical clinical parasitology’ commencing with a review by A. Hemphill and J. Müller, University of Berne, Switzerland on novel chemotherapeutic treatment options for alveolar and cystic echinococcosis. The first seroprevalence study on human Taenia solium cysticercosis from Haiti is described by C.P. Raccurt, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France and colleagues from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Two papers on the molecular biology of Trichinella are published by R.N. García- Sánchez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, and co-workers on the characterization of Trichinella isolates by ISSR-PCR in south-western Spain and by R. Blaga, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and colleaques from Lanzhou and Changchun China, on the use of mitochondrial genes for differentiation of Trichinella species by multiplex PCR amplification. A.M. Džamić et al., Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, complete this session by reviewing human Dirofilaria repens infection in Serbia.
In sessions of the ‘K.E. Mott symposium on flukes and schistosomes’ and ‘Parasites of veterinary importance: Trematoda’, I. Fairweather, Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) UK, respectively reviews progress in the use of triclabendazole (TCBZ) in the treatment of fascioliasis and, with J.F. O'Neill et al., QUB and J. Kaiser, The Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel Switzerland uses the rat model to describe ultrastructural changes in adult TCBZ-resistant Fasciola hepatica after treatment in vivo with artemether.
Trematodes also feature in four papers arising from the session on ‘Wildlife and parasite fauna: epidemiological aspects of bird schistosomes’, commencing with two contributions from K. Skírnisson, University of Iceland, Reykjavick, J.A. Aldhoun and L. Kolářová, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, who review the occurrence of ‘swimmer's itch’ in Iceland and, together with P. Horák, Charles University in Prague, consider molecular evidence for bird schistosome diversity in Iceland. A further molecular approach on schistosomes in aquatic birds in France is described by D. Jouet et al., Université de Reims Champagne, whereas the role of schistosome-infected snails in outbreaks of ‘swimmer's itch’, or cercarial dermatitis, in the southwest of the USA is reviewed by S.V. Brant and E.S. Loker, University of New Mexico. The final contribution to this issue originates from the satellite symposium on ‘Filariasis’, where S. Specht, University Hospital, Bonn, Germany and S. Wanji, Research Foundation for Tropical Diseases and Environment, Buea, Cameroon, provide new insights into the biology of filarial infections, with emphasis on onchocerciasis.
I wish to express my sincere and grateful thanks to Professor Santiago Mas-Coma, University of Valencia, Spain, President of the Executive Board, European Federation of Parasitology; Professor Jean Dupouy-Camet, Hospital Cochin, Université Paris Descartes, France, Coordinator of the EMOP 10 Organising Committee; Dr Eduardo Dei-Cas, Institut Pasteur de Lille, France, Coordinator of the EMOP 10 International Scientific Committee; and Dr David Rollinson, Natural History Museum, London, UK, President of the World Federation of Parasitologists; for their continued enthusiastic support in the publication of papers from special sessions in the successful EMOP 10 in France as in the case of EMOP 8 in Poland and EMOP 9 in Spain.
