Advances in immunoparasitology

A selective review of the advances in immunoparasitology is presented. It is selective simply because it is not feasible to embrace the whole field of parasitology within the compass of a single review paper, for if it were attempted, it would suffer undue abbreviation. Emphasis is placed on the advances in helminthology and especially the gastro-intestinal parasites of ruminants, an obvious selection because of the interests of the author. Reviews are always somewhat retrospective in outlook; to write a review at the present time is especially foolhardy since developments in biology are such that totally new concepts can arise almost overnight, as it were. This is a particularly healthy state, and the discipline of parasitology is caught up in the application and interpretation of molecular biological considerations. "Parasitism" is a field of increasing importance and challenge.