Invertebrate Pathology

Many invertebrates are serious pests of agriculture (e.g., mites and locusts), vectors of disease (e.g., mosquitoes and aquatic snails) and venomous (e.g., scorpions), whilst others are beneficial to humans as pollinators, food sources, and detritivores. Despite their obvious ecological, medical, and economic importance, this is the first comprehensive review of invertebrate diseases to be available within a single volume. Concurrent molecular and bioinformatics developments over the last decade have catalysed a renaissance in invertebrate pathology. High-throughput sequencing, handheld diagnostic kits, and the move to new technologies have rapidly increased our understanding of invertebrate diseases, generating a large volume of fundamental and applied research on the topic. An overview is now timely and this authoritative work assembles an international team of the leading specialists in the field to review the main diseases and pathologic manifestations of all the major invertebrate groups. Each chapter adopts a common plan in terms of its scope and approach to achieve a succinct and coherent synthesis. Invertebrate Pathology is aimed at graduate students and researchers in the fields of disease ecology, invertebrate biology, comparative immunology, aquaculture, fisheries, veterinary science, evolution, and conservation. It will be particularly useful for readers new to the field as well as a broader interdisciplinary audience of practitioners and resource managers.

Andrew F. Rowley is a Professor of Biosciences at Swansea University, Wales, UK. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and edited several books. His main interest is in invertebrate immunology and pathology. He has supervised over 30 doctoral students in his career and currently has over £1 million of grant income from the EU and UKRI. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. Christopher J. Coates currently holds the rank and title of Associate Professor (Reader) in Biosciences at Swansea University, Wales, UK. He has published over 40 papers and review articles in the area of comparative immunology and immunopathology (crustaceans, chelicerates, echinoderms, insects, and molluscs). Ongoing research activities are supported by approximately £2 million in grant income from several national and international sources (e.g., EU Interreg, RISE, Sêr Cymru). Christopher is the joint-lead for Shellfish Health and Diseases as part of the BBSRC/NERC-sponsored Aquaculture Research Collaboration Hub UK, and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Developmental and Comparative Immunology. Miranda M. Whitten is a Senior Lecturer at Swansea University Medical School's Institute of Life Science, Wales, UK. She is the joint-lead for biopesticide development (symbiont-mediated RNA interference) within the Microbes and Immunity research section. She is a scientific advisor for the biopesticide industry, and has recently published over twenty papers and reviews on the themes of insect immunity, crustacean microbiology, and the commercial applications of insect microbes in pest control and in parasite transmission. She teaches infectious disease and parasitology, and has recently attracted more than £800,000 grant income from sources including the BBSRC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Russian Science Foundation.