Voltage-gated calcium channels are critical regulators of cytoplasmic levels of calcium, the universal signaling ion. As such, calcium channels trigger a wide range of cellular functions, from muscle contraction to neurotransmitter secretion, and are important players in human disease. Prominent in the nervous, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems, members of the calcium channel family are targets for existing antihypertensive and anticonvulsant drugs. In addition, they are emerging targets for drugs to treat an extraordinarily diverse group of disorders, including pain, cerebral ischemia, cardiac arrhythmia, and migraine. This book reviews the compounds that target individual calcium channel subtypes and the cellular and behavioral functions governed by each different channel. It contains information for basic scientists using calcium channel antagonists as experimental tools, for behavioralists studying animal models of human disease, and for pharmaceutical scientists interested in creating the next generation of calcium channel-targeted drugs. Several factors make an entire book on calcium channel pharmacology timely.

As aquaculture continues to expand there is a need for greater knowledge of medicinal treatments both for the prevention and treatment of disease and for the economic husbandry of fish. This book, the first of its kind, is written for a worldwide readership. It is a reference manual for anyone involved in the selection of medicines for administration to fish. It will also be useful to administrators concerned with the legal control of aquaculture. The first part covers issues which affect all medicine's methods of administering drugs to fish, the various aspects of safety and the relevant legislation in countries with important aquacultural industries. Subsequent parts review the range of available medicinal substances and present current knowledge of the pharmacology and methods of use for each. Particular attention is given to safety issues - for the fish, for the person administering the medicine, for the consumer of medicated fish and for the environment.

This book is a direct result of a symposium held in December 1988, in Washington, DC, honoring Professor Emeritus Miodrag Ristic for his contributions to rickettsial disease research, in general, and, to ehrlichiosis, in particular. He and his colleagues in the United States Army Medical Research Unit brought to the world's attention an epidemic of ehrlichiosis, that occurred in German shepherd dogs during the Vietnam War. The group was able to culture the microorganism Ehrlichia canis and to fulfill Koch's postulates. They eventually developed an indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test which has been adopted internationally. The same group joined a national effort to decipher another mysterious disease known as Potomac horse fever (PHF). They used the same technology developed by Nyindo in Dr. Ristic's laboratory to isolate, characterize, and again develop a similar IFA test for PHF. Today PHF has been diagnosed, at least serologically, practically across the entire United States, in some provinces of Canada, and reports are beginning to trickle in of its occurrence in European countries. Thus, the etiologic agent of PHF, now named after Professor Ristic, Ehrlichia risticii, historically places this scientist side by side with the other 2 "R's", i. e. , Ricketts and da Rochalima. Ehrlichiosis is not limited to domestic animals. Sennetsu rickettsiosis, long known by Japanese scientists as an imitator of "infectious mononucleosis," was subsequently shown to be caused by an ehrlichial agent, through collaborative efforts among the United States Army, the University of Illinois, and Dr.

In spite of the availability of modern broad-spectrum anthelmintic drugs, the prevention and control of helminth zoonoses remain a challenge to human and veterinary parasitologists and to physicians and veterina- rians working on the field. Although the life cycles of most helminths of zoonotic importance are well known, there are still major gaps in our knowledge especially in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis and treat- ment The International Colloquium on Helminth Zoonoses held at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, 11-12 December 1986, laid emphasis on more recent advances made in the control and epidemiology of these zoonotic diseases. The disease complexes echinococcosis/hydatidosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis and the larva migrans-syndrome were dealth with in considerable detail. In the first chapter the phenomenon of strain variation in Echinococcus spp. is examined in the light of newer findings. The progress made in recent years towards a more specific diagnosis and drug targeting in hydatidosis is reported. In the second chapter recent advances in immunisation and treatment of cysticercosis are dealt with. The possibili- ty of the existence of strain differences in Taenia saginata is also dis- cussed. The third chapter is devoted to trematode zoonoses with particular reference to the situation in South-east Asia, Senegal (schistosomiasis) and Liberia (paragonimiasis). In the last chapter the larva migrans- syndrome is treated in detail with special attention to its etiology and and diagnosis. Reports on lesser known nematode zoonoses like mammomono- gamosis and oesophagostomiasis are included.

Global warming and globalization are the buzzwords of our time. They have nearly reached a religious status and those who deny their existence are considered modern heretics. Nevertheless, the earth has become an overcrowded village, traversable within a single day. Thus it is hardly surprising that besides persons and goods also agents of disease are easily transported daily from one end of the world to the other, threatening the health and lives of billions of humans and their animals. Agents of diseases (prions, viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites) are not only transmitted by body contact or direct exchange of bodily fluids, but also by means of vectors which belong to the groups of licking or blood-sucking arthropods (mites, ticks, insects) that live close to humans and their houses.

Without a doubt the recently accelerating globalization supports the import of agents of disease into countries where they never had been or where they had long since been eradicated, leading to a false sense of living on a safe island. These newly imported or reintroduced diseases called emerging diseases may lead to severe outbreaks in cases where the countries are not prepared to combat them, or in cases where viruses are introduced that cannot be controlled by medications or vaccines.

Arthropods are well known vectors for the spread of diseases. Thus their invasion from foreign countries and their spreading close to human dwellings must be blocked everywhere (in donor and receptor countries) using safe and effective measures.

This book presents reviews on examples of such arthropod-borne emerging diseases that lurk on the fringes of our crowded megacities. The following topics show that there is an ongoing invasion of potential vectors and that control measures must be used now in order to avoid disastrous outbreaks of mass diseases.

This book contains the contributions to a workshop on stress in farm animals held on April 17-18,1986 at the Pietersberg Con ference Centre Oosterbeek. The workshop was financed by the Commis sion of the European Communities from its budget for the coordina tion of Community Agricultural Research and the Agricultural Uni versity of Wageningen (The Netherlands). Its aim was to bring together experts from different disciplines all having in common that in one way or another they were involved in stress research. Such a multidisciplinary encounter should not only provide an interesting description of present day knowledge on stress, but also promote a more integrated view on stress phenomena as they occur in higher vertebrates. In the course of this workshop the following fields of research were related to stress: endocrinology, immunology, pathology, neurobiology, ethology and theoretical bio logy. Each of these relationships was introduce& by one speaker presenting a concise state of the art. The same relationship was elaborated by a second speaker implementing the available knowledge as far as possible to the farm animal situation. Therefore in this book each discipline is represented by a duo and introduced by some integrating remarks."

A Seminar in the Community Programme for the Coordination of Agricultural Research, held at the Berlaymont Building, Brussels, Belgium, July 5-6, 1988. Sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General for Agriculture, Coordination of Agricultural Research

A Seminar in the EEC Programme of Coordination of Research on Animal Reproduction, held at the Station de Physiologie de la Reproduction of the INRA, Nouzilly, France, October 6-7, 1983. Sponsored by the CEC, Directorate-General for Agriculture, Coordination of Agricultural Research.

A Seminar in the CEC Programme of Coordination of Research on Animal Pathology, held at the Veterinary Research Laboratories, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct. 10-11, 1984. Sponsored by the CEC, Directorate-General for Agriculture, Coordination of Agricultural Research.

A seminar in the Community Programme for the Coordination of Agricultural Research, held in Brussels, Belgium, April 7-9, 1987