The Immune Defenses of The Host
Neil Foster and Hany M. Elsheikha
from: Essentials of Veterinary Parasitology (Edited by: Hany M. Elsheikha and Naveed Ahmed Khan). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2011)
Abstract
In addition to the host's behaviour and physiology, immunity is another important host factor that influences the host-parasite interactions. The immune system is one of the most complex and diverse body components. This system recognizes parasite antigens as 'non-self' (foreign) and an immune response to these parasites is then initiated. It is difficult to generalize about the mechanisms of anti-parasite immunity because there are many different parasites that have different forms, which reside in different tissue of the animal body and in some cases may reside in different host species. Parasites have also evolved very elaborate mechanisms to escape attack by the host immune system. In this chapter we describe the range of defences the mammalian body possess to combat parasitic infections read more ...
