Fish Immunology

This book contains the proceedings of an International Meeting on Fish Immunology, held in New Jersey, USA. Fish immunology has become increasingly important during the last decade. Recent research results detailing the immune systems of fish have phylogenetic significance for veterinary and clinical immunologists, and for scientists studying environmental and pollution problems. They also provide fundamantal information for aquaculturalists and fish farmers. It is becoming increasingly clear that fish immune systems function with similarities analogous to mammalian counterparts with a few interesting exceptions due to optimal adaptation to the aquatic environment. The cell interactions, molecular signals and the structure of immunoglobulin molecules and complement components have been conserved throughout vertebrate evolution. The 47 scientific papers in this volume represent participants from 18 different countries, who are all affiliated with government, academic, or private research organizations.