First peek on the LOGOMO venue

Getting a bottom feeling of LOGOMO Business Class seats.
Heikki Henttonen, Pekka Niemelä and Larry Huldén testing alternatives.

Update from the local organising committee

Dear Colleagues,


After three years, EMOP XII will be past - hopefully leaving participants with unforgettable scientific discoveries, theories and understanding. And memories. After the Multicolloquium, it may be a good idea to brew the germinating thoughts at one of the Post EMOP Tours which the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) is planning in collaboration with Turku Touring. A natural, easy and tranquil choice is The Turku Archipelago, to visit some of the more than 20,000 islands of the, by some definitions, largest archipelago in the world, with possibilities to biking, fishing, canoeing, or just relaxing. There is a recent Lonely Planet article that may give an idea how it is like. Just a comment on the cinnamon "korvapuusti" buns; please, don't expect to find them on all breakfast tables. And, while it is true that Finland was the first country in the world to grant unrestricted voting rights to women in 1906, that was before Finland gained its independence from Russia; so the suffragette action had to be accepted by the Grand Duke of Finland, Russian Tsar Nicholas II. But, the Finns are still proud of the gender equality.

But the main thing, of course, is the Multicolloquium itself. As you may already be aware, the LOC put a poll on this this site (Choose your preferences of sessions/symposia/workshops at the EMOP XII). For some reason, this poll has not been functioning as it should; votes keep on dropping from file. We are very sorry for this, and strive to solve the problem, but it appears to be a general one for Blogspot. However, we have followed the votes consistently, and the top topics have almost always included (top ten):

Wildlife parasitology; Echinococci; Parasitism and global change; Parasite biology and ecology; Host-parasite interactions; Water- and food-borne zoonoses; Aquaculture and aquatic parasitology; Phylogeny of parasites; Parasite population dynamics; Parasite control in sustainable thinking.

The poll is not functioning properly and can not be corrected on the blog. As a result we will move the poll shortly to an external poll, but keep the results we have got. Meanwhile, we wish to cordially thank all the voters hitherto!

We are also very grateful for the excellent suggestions given by commentators. These will be taken into account when updating the poll:

Diphyllobothrium phylogeny and host range; Cestode taxonomy, especially of fresh water fishes; Parasites and pregnancy; Sarcocystis; Evolutionary Parasitology; Sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests; The concept of "strongyles" and "strongylids". These are all very natural additions to the poll. And then, "Philosophical aspects of parasitism" to wide our views!

Enjoy the summer! In Turku it is now (July 26th, 2013, at 11 am) 22 ºC, and the sky is clear. See you in Turku in three years,


LOC

Parasitological Institute in Turku 50 years anniversary

Åbo Akademi University Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology / Parasitological Institute in Turku 50 years.

The Parasitological Institute was founded by the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (Societas Scientiarum Fennica) in 1963 as an independent research institute at Åbo Akademi University. In the 1980's the Institute was integrated with the Department of Biology, Åbo Akademi University. The Institute changed name in the 90's to the Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology in order to better describe the current activities.

In the beginning, the main goal was to use research-generated knowledge to help eradicate the broad tapeworm (Diphyllobotrium latum) from Finland. While as late as during the 50’s, the infection was rather common, the prevalence regionally reaching even 20 %, the disease is now rare, but not entirely eradicated. Studies showed that pike, burbot and perch, but not vendace, whitefish or salmon transferred the infection to humans.

Figure 1. Finnish Red Cross Diphyllobothrium latum combat poster from the 1950’s. Its text gives a clear warning with a rather unprecise description of the tapeworm life cycle.  

Especially in the 70’s and 80’s, the Laboratory research was mainly focused on zoonotic parasitic infections, but also on parasite-related fish diseases and parasite biology.

The activity has in recent years focused mainly on bacterial diseases in wild and farmed fish, and the research has produced internationally important results. Also, viral diseases in fish have been studied. Ongoing parasitological studies have dealt with the biology and systematics of ascaridoid nematodes, and recently also the myxozoan parasite Henneguya zschokkei in farmed and wild whitefish.

The Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology will continue to focus on the area of fish health. Its research primarily serves coastal communities, fish farming, various government agencies and the scientific community

On April 17th, 2013, the Laboratory will celebrate its first 50 years with a Seminar where, among others, Dr. Tom Wiklund will shortly present the 50-year history, Dr. Hans-Peter Fagerholm will speak about parasitological research at the Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology / Parasitological Institute, and Prof. Arne Skorping (University of Bergen) about parasitology yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Seminar language is mainly Swedish/Scandinavian. The Seminar will be finished with a banquet dinner.

www.abo.fi

Figure 1. Invitation to the 50-year seminar

[Right click and save image to computer to view]

Cheer up a Fellow Parasitologist!

Author: Antti Oksanen

Looking for some probably existing literature in the office, I happened to encounter an empty shoebox which I had used to collect reprint requests in. During the latest office move, I decided to be practical and discarded all reprint stacks of my own papers, as well as all the (several!) reprint request cards from often far-away-countries. Everything happens electronically nowadays, so no need to request reprints anymore. Reprint request cards were not for the Modern Scientist; already several years had elapsed since I received one.

But I remember just how I felt like to receive one. Somebody, somewhere, was interested in my work! And this person sent me a card, perhaps with a beautiful butterfly or mosquito stamp. I did not hurry to collect it from the mail tray before all colleagues had commented it. Put it in the shoebox and thought maybe after the next paper I need to get another box, perhaps a boot box. Then came the electronic full-text databases, such as ScienceDirect, which my institution started to subscribe. It gives an easy access to the publications in journals from this publisher, more reading than I might ever be able to digest. Open Access journals make it even easier. Still, there is a problem in achieving papers in journals from many publishers the institution does not subscribe. The library could order them, of course, but for a fee, which is often considerably high. Publishing is business, and the publisher of course needs the money, but does a 5-page paper really need to cost 35 €, or more?

Electronic Reprint Request (ERR) is the easy solution. Why not send an e-mail to the author and request an electronic Portable Document Format (.pdf) file of the interesting article? Publishers, at least some, permit the distribution of copies of published journal articles to research colleagues for their personal use

Below, please find a simple model of ERR:

Dear Colleague

Markus J Rantala,

I would greatly appreciate receiving a reprint (.pdf file) of your article entitled:

"Adiposity, compared with masculinity, serves as a more valid cue to immunocompetence in human mate choice"

Which appeared in:

Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Jan 22;280(1751):20122495. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2495.

Thanking you in advance,

Antti Oksanen, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Research and Laboratory Department, Elektroniikkatie 3, FI-90590 Oulu, Finland Antti.Oksanen[at]evira.fi

You can easily personalize your ERR by adding something about your own interest in the matter:

I’m not skinny but competent.

And you can add your favourite parasitological stamp:

Don’t make the error of not acquiring all the relevant literature needed in your own research. An abstract is almost always less than an entire article. ERR is a nice way to delight a Colleague and save money simultaneously.

YOU CAN CHOOSE!

EMOP XII in Turku July 20-24, 2016, is to be a rendezvous of parasitologists from all over the world, not just European. We do not intend to offer "something for everybody", but rather "everything for the parasitologist".

In order to fulfil the goal, preparations are already in full swing. Now, we feel that we need YOUR help.

YOU can help us by giving thumbs up (or down) to the topics we have preliminarily planned as sessions/symposia/workshops at the EMOP XII. We promise to give a careful consideration to the poll results in compiling the program in collaboration with the Scientific Committee and the European Federation of Parasitologists Board.

As a reward, YOU'LL get a most interesting, fruitful and scientifically satisfying program.

Please tick your preferences in the bottom of this blog!

YOU can also suggest yourself or somebody else to arrange or chair a workshop.
YOU also can suggest topics not listed below. We may have overlooked many emerging or otherwise interesting subjects. Please, enter your suggestions in the “comments” box below.

Thank YOU for helping us!

EMOP XII Turku July 20-24, 2016 Local Organizing Committee

At the very well organized EMOP XI in Cluj-Napoca July 27^th, the European Federation of Parasitologists (EFP) General Assembly decided that the next EMOP XII will be arranged in Turku (Åbo in Swedish), Finland, on 20-24 July, 2016. The decision was not a big surprise to members of the Provisional Local Organizing Committee (PLOC), as we had worked hard to convince EFP that Turku was the best imaginable venue for EMOP XII.

Our main arguments were:

1.       The Nordic and Baltic countries have a strong and proud history within parasitology; Carl von Linné, the father of modern taxonomy, worked in Uppsala, Sweden; Peter Abildgaard, the founder of Copenhagen vet school, Denmark, was the first to experimentally demonstrate the life cycle of any parasite species; Konstantin I. Skryabin, the famous helminthologist, studied and worked in his early career in Tartu, Estonia. There were two early malariologist namesakes in Turku during the 1700’s, Johan Linder, whose work was later continued in Sweden by Linnaeus, and Johan Haartman, “Father of the Finnish Medical Science”, who found the association between preceding warm summers and malaria, a disease which was common in the Turku area in the 1770s. Even though neither of them understood the real etiology of malaria, Turku could be considered an early parasitological hotspot. Agnes Sjöberg, the first European female veterinarian, studied gastrointestinal helminths of sheep and cattle in western Finland during the 1920s and -30s (Ostertagia lyrata Sjöberg 1926). The big thing in Finnish parasitology was the fish-derived human tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum, known as the National Parasite of Finland, the Land of a Thousand Lakes (at last count 187,888 lakes). Fifty years ago, the worm was very common in the Finnish population, with regional prevalence reaching over 60 %. Diphyllobothrium work created foundation to fish parasitological studies and Finnish fish parasitology can now be regarded as world leading. Another parasitological cornerstone in Finland nowadays is research on infections in arvicoline rodents. This research has expanded into cestode infections also in other wildlife species. Echinococcus granulosus G 10 (syn. Echinococcus canadensis) was originally described from Finnish reindeer and wolves. There used to be a general misunderstanding, not shared by Europe’s first lady vet, though, that the barren country and cold winters would make Finland an unsuitable habitat for most parasites of veterinary relevance. Lately, it has been revealed that the Finnish wildlife has one of the highest Trichinella spp prevalences found anywhere in the world. Finnish parasitologists have been members of the Scandinavian Society for Parasitology (SSP), now Scandinavian-Baltic Society of Parasitology (SBSP), since its beginning in 1966 when 34 Nordic parasitologists participated in a symposium, organized in Turku.

2.       So far, no EMOP has been organized in the North, the closest being Cambridge, the Hague and Poznan, all located at 52°N. Turku is a medieval city that used to be the capital of Finland, located in the southwestern corner of Finland, at 60°N. The population is about 180,000 inhabitants, which makes it the 5th biggest city in the country. Turku is located by the Baltic Sea and sheltered by the 20,000 islands of the Archipelago Sea, and has a hemiboreal climate. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of 17 °C.

3.       We had planned an exciting provisional program, which will get even more exciting during the next four years. Arctic and Northern parasitology will be on focus, but the aim is to attract parasitologists from all fields and from all over the world in order to make Turku the truly international parasitologist rendezvous.

4.       Finland is a Schengen member state. Being in the southwestern corner of Finland, Turku is easy to reach. There are many international flights arriving directly at Turku Airport. There are also bus connections leaving Helsinki-Vantaa airport approximately every hour to Turku. Also two cruise lines operate with regular connections between Stockholm and Turku. The Multicolloquium venue is LOGOMO, the newly opened convention centre in the heart of Turku, a former locomotive garage very close to the railway station. LOGOMO has flexible facilities with conference rooms, ballrooms and restaurants. http://en.logomo.fi/home/meetings_and_congresses. There is a variety of accommodation possibilities, from camping to student dormitories serving as summer hostels via ship hostel to multistar hotels.

5.       During and in extension of the conference there are many options for an active and exciting holiday. We can understand that many parasitologists may want to visit Lapland, perhaps Nordkapp, or Russia. These trips can be made pre or post conference. The historic city of Turku offers many cultural activities and museums. The proximity offers various tours:

a.      Orienteering. An opportunity to try the sport and to learn how to use a compass and to read a map when you are walking in a forest. Essential for wildlife parasitology.

b.       Insect collecting for (amateur and pro) entomologists.

c.        Farm visits to show the region’s primary production.

d.       Paddling with canoes along the Aura river or in the archipelago.

e.       Cruising in the archipelago. Several companies organize trips into the archipelago around Turku.

f.         The Finnish tango.

g.        Fishing trips with fish parasites in mind. Crayfishing.

h.       A selection of saunas will be available for every participant to visit.

i.          http://www.turkutouring.fi/en http://www.visitfinland.com/

And, last, but not least; there was no other bid competing with ours. Now, we shall start working in earnest to make EMOP XII Turku an unforgettable parasitological experience

The bid on EMOP XII (Turku, Finland) accepted in Romania

Pictures by: Libuse Kolarova