Review Article1: Interaction of Ectoparasites and Their Hosts

Abstract

This review emphasizes responses of the host to ectoparasite attack. Emphasis is on those ectoparasites that are more closely associated with their hosts, but some attention is given to host responses to hematophagous Diptera because the subject has been researched in some detail. The scope includes hematologic and clinical manifestations of infestation, arthropod antigens and host antibodies raised against them, manifestations of antigen-antibody interaction, histopathologic reactions of skin to arthropod feeding and acquired resistance to arthropods, genetics of host resistance, economic effects of parasitism, and speculation on the nature of innate and acquired resistance to ectoparasites.