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We thank: the WSI DNA Pipeline teams, particularly C. Griffiths, N. Park, L. Shirley, M. Quail, D. Willey and M. Jones; WSI Pathogen Informatics, especially J. Keane; T.D. Otto for bioinformatics advice; MGI faculty and staff, especially M. Schmidt, C. Fronick, M. Cordes, T. Miner, R. Fulton and other members of the Project Management, Resource Bank, Library Construction and Data Production teams; D. Hughes, M. Muffato at the European Bioinformatics Institute, for support running Maker and Ensembl Compara; and K. Gharbi and his staff at Edinburgh Genomics for support; V. Gelmedin, R. Fujiwara, F. Brazil, the late Purnomo (University of Indonesia, Jakarta), J. Ahringer, E.S. Hernández Redondo, F. Jackson, E. Redman, A. Ito, J. Saldaña, M. Fernanda Dominguez, W. Gause, M. Badets, I.E. Samonte, A. Koehler, M. Nielsen, L.S. Mansfield, T. Sonstegard for sample preparation. ; Parasitic nematodes (roundworms) and platyhelminths (flatworms) cause debilitating chronic infections of humans and animals, decimate crop production and are a major impediment to socioeconomic development. Here we report a broad comparative study of 81 genomes of parasitic and non-parasitic worms. We have identified gene family births and hundreds of expanded gene families at key nodes in the phylogeny that are relevant to parasitism. Examples include gene families that modulate host immune responses, enable parasite migration though host tissues or allow the parasite to feed. We reveal extensive lineage specific differences in core metabolism and protein families historically targeted for drug development. From an in silico screen, we have identified and prioritized new potential drug targets and compounds for testing. This comparative genomics resource provides a much-needed boost for the research community to understand and combat parasitic worms. ; The work was supported by funding from Wellcome (206194), Medical Research Council (MR/L001020/1), and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K020048/1) to M.B., and US National Institutes of Health (NIH)–National Human Genome Research Institute grant number U54HG003079, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant number AI081803, and National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant number GM097435 to M.M. Genome sequencing and analysis in Edinburgh was supported by EU SICA award 242131 'Enhanced Protective Immunity Against Filariasis' (EPIAF) (to D.W.T.). S.A. Babayan. was also supported by the EU project EPIAF. G. Koutsovoulos was supported by a BBSRC/Edinburgh University PhD scholarship and D.R.L. by a joint Edinburgh University/James Hutton Institute PhD scholarship. J.E.A. was supported by MRC grant MR/K01207X/1. J.P. and S.S. were supported by the National Institutes of Health/NIAID (R21 AI126466) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2014-06664). Additional computing resources were provided through Compute Canada by the University of Toronto SciNet HPC Consortium. R.M.M. was supported by a Wellcome Investigator Award (ref. 106122) and Wellcome core funding to the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology (Ref 104111). J.B.M. was supported by the Scottish Government RESAS. T.S. was supported by the Institute of Parasitology, BC CAS (RVO: 60077344). A.R.L. and P.M. were supported by a Strategic Award from Wellcome (WT104104/Z/14/Z) and the Member States of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Schistosome samples were obtained from the SCAN repository (Wellcome grant 104958).

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. Helminths parasitic in animals represent a large assemblage of worms, representing three phyla, with more than 200 families and almost 4,000 species of parasites from all major vertebrate and many invertebrate groups. A general introduction is given for each of the major groups of parasitic worms, i.e. the Acanthocephala, Monogenea, Trematoda (Aspidogastrea and Digenea), Cestoda and Nematoda. Basic information for each group includes its size, host-range, distribution, morphological features, life-cycle, classification, identification and recent key-works. Tabulations include a complete list of families dealt with, the number of species in each and the name of the specialist responsible for data acquisition, a list of additional specialists who helped with particular groups, and a list of higher taxa dealt with down to the family level. A compilation of useful references is appended.

DRACUNCULIASIS (GUINEA WORM DISEASE) IS A PARASITIC disease that is limited to remote, rural villages in 13 sub-Saharan African countries that do not have access to safe drinking water. It is one the next diseases targeted for eradication by the World Health Organization. Guinea worm disease is transmitted by drinking water containing copepods (water fleas) that are infected with Dracunculiasis medinensis larvae. One year after human ingestion of infected water a female adult worm emerges, typically from a lower extremity, producing painful ulcers that can impair mobility for up to several weeks. This disease occurs annually when agricultural activities are at their peak. Large proportions of economically productive individuals of a village are usually affected simultaneously, resulting in decreased agricultural productivity and economic hardship. Eradication of guinea worm disease depends on prevention, as there is no effective treatment or vaccine. Since 1986, there has been a 98% reduction in guinea worm disease worldwide, achieved primarily through community-based programs. These programs have educated local populations on how to filter drinking water to remove the parasite and how to prevent those with ulcers from infecting drinking-water sources. Complete eradication will require sustained high-level political, financial and community support.

Background: Worm infection is one of the health problems in Indonesia. Worm infections can disrupt nutrient requirements, hinder growth, intellectual development, and affect the immune system, making the body susceptible to other diseases. Selenium is a micronutrient with great potential to influence the immune system. The mechanism of action of selenium includes antioxidant activity, protecting against oxidative damage, maintaining the integrity of the intestinal mucosa, and anti-apoptotic function in the large intestine. Selenium can enhance the host's immune response by increasing the activity of Alternative Activated Macrophages (AAM), which are the main macrophages in fighting intestinal parasitic worms. Research Objective: To determine the relationship between worm infections and selenium intake. Research Method: Analytical research using a cross-sectional approach. Sampling was done using total sampling technique on elementary school children in the Tabaringan Health Center working area in Makassar City, aged 7-9 years. Research Results: The frequency distribution of positive worm infections was 22.2%, equivalent to 8 samples, and negative worm infections were 77.8%, equivalent to 28 samples. Adequacy of selenium intake in the samples showed 16.7% inadequacy, equivalent to 6 samples, and 83.3% adequacy, equivalent to 30 samples. The analysis of the relationship between worm infections and selenium intake yielded a P-value = 0.151. Conclusion: There is no relationship between worm infections and selenium intake in children in the Tabaringan Health Center working area in Makassar City.

There are many causes of blindness and those induced by parasitic agents (i.e., Protozoa, Helminths and Diptera) are of major public health concern in developed and developing countries. For example, eye disease caused by river blindness (Onchocerca volvulus), affects more than 17.7 million people inducing visual impairment and blindness elicited by microfilariae that migrate to the eyes after being released by female adult worms in the subcutaneous tissues . Several parasites localize in human eyes as an effect of a specific neurotropism(e.g., Toxoplasma gondii in the foetuses), larval migration(e.g., ascarids, Dirofilaria spp., Trichinella spp.) and, in a few cases, as a primary localization being released directly into the eyes (e.g., Thelazia callipaeda eyeworm and some oestrid fly larvae causing myiasis) Undoubtedly, the parasitic zoonotic diseases and their epidemiology have been changing as result of complex factors including abiotic (e.g., increasing temperatures) and biotic (e.g., demographical changes, political upheaval and land- use practices) that render this topic of great interest for the scientific community Thus the present article focuses on recent trends in all the parasites that are transmitted from animals to humans and affect the human eye.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

International audience ; Root-knot nematodes are microscopic round worms, which cause severe agricultural losses. Their attacks affect the productivity by reducing the amount and the caliber of the fruits. Chemical control is widely used, but biological control appears to be a better solution, mainly using microorganisms to reduce the quantity of pests infecting crops. Biological control is developing gradually, and with time, more products are being marketed worldwide. They can be formulated with bacteria, viruses or with filamentous fungi, which can destroy and feed on phytoparasitic nematodes. To be used by the farmers, biopesticides must be legalized by the states, which has led to the establishment of a legal framework for their use, devised by various governmental organizations.

Progress towards controlling and eliminating parasitic worms, including schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, is advancing rapidly as national governments, multinational NGOs, and pharmaceutical companies launch collaborative chemotherapeutic control campaigns. Critical questions remain regarding the potential for achieving elimination of these infections, and analytical methods can help to quickly estimate progress towards-and the probability of achieving-elimination over specific timeframes. Here, we propose the effective reproduction number, Reff, as a proxy of elimination potential for sexually reproducing worms that are subject to poor mating success at very low abundance (positive density dependence, or Allee effects). Reff is the number of parasites produced by a single reproductive parasite at a given stage in the transmission cycle, over the parasite's lifetime-it is the generalized form of the more familiar basic reproduction number, R0, which only applies at the beginning of an epidemic-and it can be estimated in a 'model-free' manner by an estimator ('ε'). We introduce ε, demonstrate its estimation using simulated data, and discuss how it may be used in planning and evaluation of ongoing elimination efforts for a range of parasitic diseases.

Progress towards controlling and eliminating parasitic worms, including schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, is advancing rapidly as national governments, multinational NGOs, and pharmaceutical companies launch collaborative chemotherapeutic control campaigns. Critical questions remain regarding the potential for achieving elimination of these infections, and analytical methods can help to quickly estimate progress towards—and the probability of achieving—elimination over specific timeframes. Here, we propose the effective reproduction number, Reff, as a proxy of elimination potential for sexually reproducing worms that are subject to poor mating success at very low abundance (positive density dependence, or Allee effects). Reff is the number of parasites produced by a single reproductive parasite at a given stage in the transmission cycle, over the parasite's lifetime—it is the generalized form of the more familiar basic reproduction number, R0, which only applies at the beginning of an epidemic—and it can be estimated in a 'model-free' manner by an estimator ('ε'). We introduce ε, demonstrate its estimation using simulated data, and discuss how it may be used in planning and evaluation of ongoing elimination efforts for a range of parasitic diseases.

Progress towards controlling and eliminating parasitic worms, including schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, is advancing rapidly as national governments, multinational NGOs, and pharmaceutical companies launch collaborative chemotherapeutic control campaigns. Critical questions remain regarding the potential for achieving elimination of these infections, and analytical methods can help to quickly estimate progress towards—and the probability of achieving—elimination over specific timeframes. Here, we propose the effective reproduction number, Reff, as a proxy of elimination potential for sexually reproducing worms that are subject to poor mating success at very low abundance (positive density dependence, or Allee effects). Reff is the number of parasites produced by a single reproductive parasite at a given stage in the transmission cycle, over the parasite's lifetime—it is the generalized form of the more familiar basic reproduction number, R0, which only applies at the beginning of an epidemic—and it can be estimated in a 'model-free' manner by an estimator ('ε'). We introduce ε, demonstrate its estimation using simulated data, and discuss how it may be used in planning and evaluation of ongoing elimination efforts for a range of parasitic diseases.