Sarcocystosis of Animals and Humans

Written by the authors who pioneered studies of Sarcocystosis of domestic animals, this new edition provides a current and comprehensive review of Sarcocystis and the infections it causes in animals and humans. Sarcocystis is one of the most prevalent parasites of livestock and also infects many wild mammals, birds, and humans. The book reviews the history, structure, life cycle, pathogenesis, lesions, clinical signs, diagnosis, immunity, epidemiology, treatment, prevention, and control of Sarcocystosis.

J. P. Dubey, MVSc, PhD, was born in India. He earned his veterinary degree in 1960, and master’s in veterinary parasitology in 1963, from India. He earned PhD in medical microbiology in 1966 from the University of Sheffield, England. He obtained postdoctoral training with Dr. J. K. Frenkel, Department of Pathology and Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, from 1968 to 1973. From 1973 to 1978, he was associate professor of veterinary parasitology, Department of Pathobiology, Ohio State University, Columbus. He was professor of veterinary parasitology, Department of Veterinary Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, from 1978 to 1982. He is presently a senior scientist, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Institute, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland.
Dr. Dubey has spent over 50 years researching protozoa, including Toxoplasma,Neospora, Sarcocystis, and related cyst-forming coccidian parasites of humans and animals. He has published over 1400 research papers in international journals, more than 250 of which are on sarcocystosis. In 1985, he was chosen to be the first recipient of the “Distinguished Veterinary Parasitologist Award” by the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists. Dr. Dubey is a recipient of the 1995 WAAVP Pfizer Award for outstanding contributions to research in veterinary parasitology. He also received the 2005 Eminent Parasitologists Award by the American Society of Parasitologists. The Thomas/Institute for Scientific Information identified him as one of the world’s most cited authors in plant and animal sciences over the last decade. In 2003, he was selected for the newly created Senior Scientific Research Service (SSRS), and is one of the few scientists and executives within the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service; selection for this position is by invitation only, and is approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. In 2010, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, and inducted in the USDA-ARS Hall of Fame.
Rafael Calero-Bernal, DVM, MSc, PhD, was born in Badajoz (Spain). He earned his degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Extremadura, Spain in 2006. One year later he attended the Official Master’s in meat science and technology at the same institution. In 2011, Dr. Calero-Bernal earned PhD in European framework in veterinary medicine. Since 2008, he is a professor of the Animal Health Department at the University of Extremadura, developing teaching periods at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). He has been a research personnel in the Spanish National Microbiology Centre and the Tropical Medicine National Centre, both belonging to the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain). Dr. Calero-Bernal developed several research stays at Istituto Superiore di Sanita (Italy), Instituto Nacional de Saude (Portugal), Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz (Brazil), and Centro de Referencia para el Control de Endemias (Equatorial Guinea). Currently he is a postdoctoral researcher in the Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. He has authored more than 50 articles and 4 books related to veterinary sciences. His research interests are wildlife parasites and zoonoses, especially meatborne pathogens and tissue cysts forming coccidia.
Benjamin M. Rosenthal is a parasitologist with primary interests in the population genetics, phylogenetics, genomics, and epidemiology of zoonotic parasites. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Harvard School of Public Health. Since 1999, he has led a research program in veterinary and zoonotic parasitic diseases for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, where his studies have encompassed toxoplasmosis, sarcocystosis, trichinellosis, and related diseases. His work uses genetic variation within and among parasitic microorganisms to (1) develop improved methods for their detection and diagnosis, (2) clarify their routes of transmission and define what risk they may pose to public health, and (3) establish an accurate understanding of their evolutionary relationships and origins. He mentors secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. His teaching at the University of Maryland, College Park focuses on the ecology and evolutionary biology of infectious disease. Dr. Rosenthal developed microstatellite markers to characterize strains of Sarcocystis neurona, employed molecular diagnostics to differentiate among various suspected species ofSarcocystis, and provided the inference that Sarcocystis nesbitti, a newly recognized zoonotic species implicated in human tissue infections, might have its definitive host in a snake or related reptile.
C. A. Speer, PhD, earned BS from Colorado State University in 1967, and earned MS and PhD from Utah State University in 1969 and 1972. During 1972 and 1973, Dr. Speer was assistant professor of histology at the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston. From 1973 to 1975, he was a postdoctoral fellow of the U.S.-AID (Agency for International Development) Malaria Immunity and Vaccination Project at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. From 1975 to 1983, Dr. Speer was assistant and then associate professor of microbiology at the University of Montana, Missoula.
From 1983 to 2000, Dr. Speer held several positions at Montana State University, Bozeman. During 1983 to 1986, he was associate professor of veterinary science and director of the Electron Microscope Facility in the Department of Veterinary Science. From 1986 to 1994, Dr. Speer served as professor and head of Veterinary Molecular Biology. In 1994, he founded and served as director of the Center for Bison and Wildlife Health until 2000. From 2000 to 2008, he served as Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, founder and director of the Center for Wildlife Health and the B. Ray Thompson Distinguished Professor of Cell and Molecular Immunology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Currently, Dr. Speer is professor emeritus at Montana State University and the University of Tennessee, and vice president of Strategic Planning for Healthwide Solutions located in Vail, Colorado.
Dr. Speer’s scholarly activities have contributed to the education of numerous undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He has published more than 220 research papers in refereed journals on malaria, Chagas’ disease and Crohn’s disease of humans and various infectious diseases of wildlife and livestock, including malaria, coccidiosis, trichomoniasis, equine rotozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), cryptosporidiosis, toxoplasmosis, whirling disease, and Johne’s disease (paratuberculosis). He has also published on epitope analysis in leukocyte–endothelial cell interactions, genetic disruption of cell junctions, and expression of L-selectin by bovine T cells. He conducted research on human malaria and other protozoan diseases in the Brazilian Amazon, in India, and in Africa. He holds two international and two U.S. patents on the biochemical extraction and use of surface antigens to diagnose infectious diseases. In 1986, he received the Mershon Award for Excellence in Research from the Montana Academy of Sciences, the Honorary Alumnus Award in 1987 from the College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins and in 2002, the Gubernatorial Award for Biotechnology in Tennessee.
Ronald Fayer earned his master’s in 1964 and PhD in 1968 from Utah State University. He joined the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1968 where he has worked on the life cycles,in vitro cultivation, pathological effects, epidemiology, immunology, and molecular biology of protist parasites of veterinary and public health importance, includingSarcocystis, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Microsporidia, andBlastocystis. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles, review chapters, and books, and shares four patents. He has served as president of the American Society of Parasitologists (ASP) and of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists (AAVP). For his scientific contributions he has received numerous awards, including the H.B. Ward medal from the ASP, the Distinguished Veterinary Parasitologist Award from the AAVP, USDA Superior Service Awards from two Secretaries of Agriculture, the rank of Distinguished Senior Professional conferred by the President of the United States, and other awards. He received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award for research in Spain. He is currently working on molecular epidemiology of zoonotic protists at the Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory.