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Parasitic agents in the food chain: An overview of their prevalence and implications.

Lihua Ling

Parasitic agents are organisms that live on or within a host organism and obtain nutrients at the expense of the host. In the food chain, parasitic agents can have a significant impact on both the host organism and other organisms in the chain. Parasites can infect a wide range of host organisms, including humans, animals, and plants, and can cause a variety of diseases and health problems. In some cases, parasites can even lead to death. Parasites can be transmitted through various routes, including contaminated food and water, contact with infected animals or their waste, and through insect vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks. In addition to affecting the health of individual organisms, parasitic agents can also have broader ecological impacts. For example, they can disrupt food webs, alter species interactions, and impact ecosystem functioning. Understanding the ecology of parasitic agents is therefore important for managing their impact on both human health and ecological systems. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates knowledge from fields such as biology, epidemiology, and ecology.