The 3rd Symposium of the Scandinavian-Baltic Society for Parasitology took place in Riga, Latvia, from 16th to 18th April, 2009. The symposium was organised in the University of Latvia, a beautiful, almost 150 years old building that is located near the old town of Riga, to the delight of the participants. Altogether, 50 participants from 15 countries, mainly from northern and eastern Europe, were informed in 30 oral and 20 poster presentations about a broad range of topics related to human, wildlife and veterinary parasitology. Almost all participants came from universities and the presentations were mainly focussed on fundamental research, therefore. For example, several prevalence studies were presented:

• Toxoplasma gondii in sheep in Finland – the causative agent of toxoplasmosis
• Echinococcus spp. in wild canids in Latvia – Echinococcus multilocularis is also prevalent in Austria
• Parasite fauna in reindeer in Iceland in comparison to Norway
• Parasites in Atlantic salmon

Concerning veterinary parasitology, there were among others presentations about Trichuris suis in pigs, Eimeria spp. in cattle or flukes in cattle. BIOMIN was represented with a poster presentation about the “In vitro invasion of Eimeria tenella into MDBK cells”.

All in all, it was a small, nicely organised symposium, however, there were only few presentations concerning animal nutrition. The next symposium will be held in Oslo in 2011 and it is planned to be expanded. In case, the contributions concerning animal nutrition are increased the symposium is recommended to people working with parasites.