Alveolar echinococcosis, caused by the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, is one of the world's most dangerous zoonosis and an emerging disease with growing incidence in humans. The disease has been reported in new areas and host species in the last two decades, and the primary hosts of the parasite - red fox, golden jackal and grey wolf - are expanding their distribution in Europe. Here we report the morphological and molecular identification of Echinococcus multilocularis tapeworms in one of 29 carcasses of adult golden jackals in Croatia, where the only previous report of the parasite was in red foxes in 2016. These results suggest that alveolar echinococcosis should be treated as an emerging disease in Croatia.

This paper reports a study on four historical samples from 19th century originating from Croatia, Europe, made of silver plated and gilded copper alloys. The investigation was carried out by chromatographic, spectroscopic, and microscopic techniques. Corrosion was identified in all samples by scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), although the samples were in well-preserved states. EDS has given the following average composition of elements Ag (82.99, 4.74, 6.34,and 15.54 wt% in samples 1-4, respectively), Au (17.01 wt% in sample 1), and Cu (0, 95.26, 93.66, and 84.46 wt% in samples 1-4, respectively) for the outer layers of the samples.The exact sample elemental composition was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES): 0.12, 0.22, 0.68, and 1.20 wt% Ag in samples 1-4, respectively and 0.02 wt% Au in sample 2, all on Cu alloys with impurities of Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Si, Sn, and Zn (in quantities 0.05-1.48 wt%). Preliminary detection of metals was performed by thin-layer chromatography. Results of determined chemical composition were consistent with similar investigations, since silver-plated and gilded Cu alloys were the materials used in the production of similar samples through the history.

Paramphistomosis, caused by paramphistomid flukes, is a gastrointestinal parasitic disease of domestic and wild ruminants. Originally thought to be limited to the tropics and subtropics, the disease has recently been reported in temperate regions. Here we describe the concurrent infection of a red deer doe (Cervus elaphus) with Paramphistomum leydeni and Paramphistomum cervi. This is the first report of P. leydeni in Croatia. Flukes were identified on the basis of morphological keys (tegumental papillae) and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region 2 in ribosomal DNA. Our results confirm that the absence of tegumental papillae allows P. cervi to be differentiated morphologically from other paramphistomid species in Europe based on incident light stereomicroscopy. Nevertheless the limitations of morphological identification and taxonomic issues suggest that previous findings on paramphistomid infection should be interpreted carefully. The possible worldwide distribution of these pathogens means that paramphistomosis may be more common and its economic impact greater than previously thought.