Vaccines Against Parasitic Infections in Domestic Animals

Parasitic infections are responsible for relevant diseases in domestic animals, including pets and livestock. These infections, caused by protozoans, arthropods, and helminths, lead to huge economic losses, and several of them have zoonotic potential. It is estimated that more than 75% of human diseases have an animal origin, and parasites contribute to this high prevalence. Nowadays, the control of parasites is done mainly by chemical agents, which negatively impact the environment, leave drug residues in animal products, and contribute to the emergence of resistant parasites. Thus, scientists worldwide have invested efforts in developing vaccines to prevent parasitic infections and reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy.

The topic aims to collect papers on the actual and relevant biological, molecular, epidemiological and therapeutic aspects of the development of vaccines against parasites in domestic animals and the implementation of vaccination as a measure for parasite control. As there is a close link between animals and humans for these diseases, vaccines developed for domestic animals are also a great strategy to suppress disease occurrence in humans.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Vaccine development against helminths
- Vaccine development against protozoa
- Vaccine development against arthropods
- Clinical research
- Immunological mechanism
- Therapeutic vaccines
- Adjuvants
- DNA vaccines
- Recombinant protein vaccines
- Antigenic epitopes
- Epidemiological study based on vaccination