The swimming pattern of protozoa can be a low-cost method of identifying water toxins, according to a new study.

Several species of protozoa are covered in hair-like cilia that beat in a coordinated way to propel them through a fluid.

Chemicals in the fluid can interfere with the transport of calcium to the cilia, with different chemicals bringing about a marked alteration in the microbes’ swimming style, points out Robert Curtis at Petrel Biosensors, a spin-out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

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The Cairns Regional Council (CRC) in far north Queensland says a parasite has now been detected in several water supplies… Read more

The Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratories recently announced that it has received approval from USDA’s veterinary services to test for equine piroplasmosis for interstate and intrastate movement. EP is considered foreign to the United States and is caused by the protozoa Babesia (Theileria) equi and Babesia caballi. Prior to this announcement, the only location approved to perform EP testing was the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa…Read more

Research scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab have been working on a detection technology that will be able to detect and identify just about any organism, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa based on their endogeneous nucleic acid sequences. The current version of the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA), as the device is being called, contains 388,000 probes that together can screen for about 2,000 viruses and 900 bacteria. Moreover, there’s nothing stopping the scientists (except funding, of course) in expanding the device to include all known microorganisms of interest…Read more

Alembic has received an approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Metronidazole Tablets in strength of 750 mg.

Metronidazole is a nitroimidazole antibiotic medication used particularly for anaerobic bacteria and protozoa.

Metronidazole is an antibiotic, amebicide, and antiprotozoal. It is the drug of choice for first episodes of mild-to-moderate Clostridium difficile infection…Read more

Little Pal, a terrier mix, arrived recently from down South. “Cute puppy,” I commented, perusing the pile of papers the breeder had given the new owner. It included a list of vaccinations and worming medications already administered and a schedule of what to do next… Read more

If you return from a trip abroad to find you have projectile vomiting, roaring flatulence, sulfurous belching and explosive diarrhea, the bad news is that you won’t die; you just have an attack of giardiasis, a form of purgatory devised by the single-celled parasite known as…Read more

After producing superlatives like the world’s biggest statue of a jackrabbit and the nation’s most unpopular modern-day president, Texas can now boast what may be its most bizarre and undoubtedly its slimiest topper yet: the world’s largest known colony of…Read more