Scientific Orientation of the Department
The Department has been created by merging the Department of Ecological Parasitology and the Department of Plant Nematology in 2011. The Department is focused on detection of parasite presence in humans and animals from different environmental conditions. It’s activities include studies of the living environment of marginalized groups and human population in relation to the level and rate of parasitic infection. Attention is paid to development of the effective methods for the control of epizootiologically and epidemiologically significant contamination of urban and rural ecosystems by the causative agents of parasitic infections. As a part of a new research focus in the field of ecotoxicology, the laboratory was equipped with the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer enabling the assessment of the effects of environmental contamination on living organisms and study of pollutants accumulation (heavy metals) in the tissues of parasites and their hosts. In the field of plant parasitology, the effect of external conditions and pollutants on the composition of soil parasitic nematodes' fauna and incidence is studied. The research programme is also orientated towards communities of free living and plant parasitic nematodes in the Slovak Republic, their morphology, systematics, ecology, seasonal dynamics, trophic groups, host relations and nematode pathogenicity and, foremost, with regard to agricultural practices, towards the geographic distribution of phytopathologically and economically most important species of plant parasitic nematodes. Moreover, composting as a means of controlling environmental contamination with parasites is tested.