Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology.
Leo Margolis, was a Canadian parasitologist. He was a pioneer in the use of parasites for identification of Pacific Ocean fish stocks. His discoveries became a crucial point in negotiations over pacific salmon fisheries, as it could now be determined where each individual fish spawned, in the rivers of Canada or the United States.
Thomas Wright Moir Cameron was a Canadian veterinarian and parasitologist.
Leucochloridium variae, the brown-banded broodsac, is a species of trematode whose life cycle involves the alternate parasitic invasion of certain species of snail and bird. While there is no external evidence of the worm's existence within the bird host, the invasion of the snail host involves the grotesque swelling of one or both of the snail's eye stalks. This invasion does not cause the snail's death.
President Chester A. Arthur signed the Animal Industry Act on May 29, 1884 creating the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), an organization that was established under the United States Department of Agriculture. It replaced the Veterinary Division that had been created by the Commissioner of Agriculture in 1883, which had taken over for the Treasury Cattle Commission, Department of Treasury.
Annie Porter, married name Fantham was an English zoologist and Honorary Parasitologist to the Zoological Society of London.
Harry Hoogstraal was an American entomologist and parasitologist. He was described as "the greatest authority on ticks and tickborne diseases who ever lived." The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's Harry Hoogstraal Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Entomology honors his contributions to science.
Jean-Georges Baer was a Swiss parasitologist and environmentalist.
Elvio Herbert Sadun was an Italian-American parasitologist. Educated at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University, he conducted most of his research as Chief of Medical Zoology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (1959–1973). A prolific scientist, he wrote or edited 3 books and 313 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of immunology and tropical medicine, and is known for the first application of fluorescent antibody imaging in the diagnosis of parasitic diseases.
Henry Baldwin Ward was an American zoologist and parasitologist. He was the founder and first president of The American Society of Parasitologists, and founder-editor of the Journal of Parasitology.
Eichler's rule is one of several coevolutionary rules which states that parasites tend to be highly specific to their hosts, and thus it seems reasonable to expect a positive co-variation between the taxonomic richness of hosts and that of their parasites.
Harold Kirby, Jr. was a Canadian-American zoologist and protistologist, who was the chair of U. C. Berkeley's department of zoology from 1948 to 1952.
Robert Lloyd Rausch was an American parasitologist, mammalogist, and veterinary physician.
Delane C. Kritsky is an American parasitologist who specialised on the Monogenea, a class of parasitic flatworms which are important ectoparasites of fishes. His research was mainly in the fields of taxonomy, faunistics, and phylogeny of the Monogenea.
Xavier Mattei is a French zoologist; his research was mainly in the field of sperm ultrastructure, including fish and a variety of invertebrates such as flatworms and acanthocephalans.
Isao Ijima was a Japanese zoologist known for his studies of sponges (Porifera) — including his circumscription of the genus Staurocalyptus — leeches (Hirudinea), flatworms (Turbellaria), birds, and fish. Professor of Zoology at Tokyo Imperial University, he is considered the founder of parasitology in Japan and was the first President of the Ornithological Society of Japan. Taxa named in his honour include Ijima's sea snake and Ijima's leaf warbler.
May Belle Hutson Chitwood was an American author, nematologist, helminthologist, and zoologist at the Agricultural Research Service, curator of the National Parasite Collection, and director of the primate parasite registry at University of California at Davis. Chitwood specialized in the morphology of nematodes early in the research of this aspect of the species, and was considered a world authority. She published over 50 research papers about nematology, helminthology, and zoology.
Carmen Camacho Velasquez was a Filipino parasitologist. She specialized in parasites of the tropical fish of the Philippines. She is known for her work on the taxonomy of Digenea and was the first to describe the parasitic nematode Capillaria philippinensis, which causes intestinal capillariasis in humans.
Parr Tate was an Irish parasitologist, particularly known for his research on malaria. He spent his entire academic career in Cambridge, England, where he was Reader in Parasitology (1949–68) and head of the Department of Parasitology at the University of Cambridge, director of the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology (1953–68), and one of the founding fellows of what is now Wolfson College, Cambridge. He was the editor of the journal Parasitology (1952–68).
