This book owes its origins to 4 papers presented to the American Physiological Society in 2002. Members of an EU Research Training Programme named ‘Parity’ were then invited to contribute their own work on fish immunology and host-parasite interactions. In addition, chapters on key topics such as programmed cell death in host-parasite interactions were added to complete this symposium series volume. The final outcome is a monograph comprising 10 review papers and covering a diversity of topics loosely held together under the theme of host-parasite interactions.
The first 3 chapters are essentially fundamental cell biology and review cell death in general, apoptosis in non-mammalian hosts and the role of thiamine-positive cells in the regulation of infectious agents. These 3 chapters offer a good overview of aspects of the cellular responses mounted by hosts to infections.
The next 5 chapters are devoted to fish parasites from protozoan models, through monogeneans to crustacean infections and their authors consider basic parasite biology, immunology and pathophysiology amongst other topics. The final 2 chapters review the immunobiology of tick infections in mammals and avian coccidiosis, respectively.
Steinhagen uses Chapter 1 to introduce briefly the issues of cell death due to necrosis and apoptosis whereas Hoole and Williams in Chapter 2 focus on apoptosis in fish and lower vertebrates with an in-depth treatment. It is fascinating to learn that parasites not only modulate host apoptotic pathways but may also ‘commit suicide’ to regulate their own numbers. The roles of thiamine-positive cells are discussed by Neilsen and others (Chapter 3) in regard to mammalian hosts as well as, to a lesser extent, lower vertebrates.
Chapter 4 (Joerink and others) examine the immune responses of fish to trypanosomatid parasites in a blend of review and primary paper and this is followed by Woo's comparative treatment of kinetoplastids in which he describes the pathophysiology of salmon cryptobiosis and African trypanosomiases. The host-parasite interactions in Argulus (Walker and others, Chapter 6) and sea lice infections (Johnson and East, Chapter 7) in fish are reviewed in some detail with consideration being afforded to parasite morphology, life-cycles, host specificity, attachment mechanisms and pathophysiology. Chapter 8 (Buchmann) is a wide ranging review of the interactions between monogeneans and their hosts, citing many different examples but quite naturally focusing on Gyrodactylus salaris.
The final 2 chapters review tick-host interactions (Alarcon-Chaidez and Wikel) with a view to understanding the immune responses evoked by feeding ticks and generating novel vaccines, and avian coccidiosis (Vermeulen) again with an emphasis on immune responses and vaccine development. All of the above chapters provide excellent introductions to the basic biology of the target organism(s) and the ways in which hosts respond to invasion and infection.
The diversity of topics in this volume is such that it is difficult to categorize it and thus identify an obvious target audience. I suspect, since the majority of the book deals with fish parasites, it will appeal mostly to that cohort of researchers – as such I can comfortably recommend it as a good read and source of information. The papers are well written by experts in the field and each is accompanied by an extensive reference list. Most chapters include graphics of one sort or another but these are all black and white and are rendered rather soft in reproduction which is a shame since the original photographic artwork looks to be of a high standard. The editors have thoughtfully included a list of abbreviations but, as with many such ventures, it is incomplete and idiosyncratic. For instance, it includes AMP, ADP and ADP but omits NAD; among others it does not include CAD, ICAD, VDAC, PARP, IAP, BIR, ACMNV, CHSE and EPC all of which appear in the first 3 chapters. To be fair, each acronym is explained in the text and so one wonders why the need for a patchy list of abbreviations.
I can recommend this book as a good library purchase and I think it would be an excellent reference source for advanced undergraduate assignments and for starting PhD students. Because of its diversity I doubt whether many outside the rarefied world of fish parasite immunology and pathology would purchase a personal copy.
