Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are ultra-small silver particles with a size from 1 to 100 nanometers. Unlike bulk silver, they have unique physical and chemical properties. Numerous studies have shown that AgNPs have beneficial biological effects on various diseases, including antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiparasitic, and antiviruses. One of the most well-known applications is in the field of antibacterial applications, where AgNPs have strong abilities to kill multi-drug resistant bacteria, making them a potential candidate as an antibacterial drug. Recently, AgNPs synthesized from plant extracts have exhibited outstanding antiparasitic effects, with a shorter duration of use and enhanced ability to inhibit parasite multiplication compared to traditional antiparasitic drugs. This review summarizes the types, characteristics, and the mechanism of action of AgNPs in anti-parasitism, mainly focusing on their effects in leishmaniasis, flukes, cryptosporidiosis, toxoplasmosis, Haemonchus, Blastocystis hominis, and Strongylides. The aim is to provide a reference for the application of AgNPs in the prevention and control of parasitic diseases.

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), a subgroup of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), causes infections in poultry and may pose a public health risk. Although previous reviews have examined the epidemiology, genotypes, pathogenicity, antimicrobial resistance, and zoonotic risk of APEC, its global research landscape and development trends have not been systematically evaluated. This study analyzed 1121 APEC-related publications published from 2000 to 2025 and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace were used to examine publication trends, countries, institutions, journals, citations, and keywords. The number of publications increased steadily, with more rapid growth after 2019. China produced the most publications, whereas the USA received the most citations. Iowa State University, Yangzhou University, and Anhui Agricultural University were the leading institutions, and Poultry Science, Veterinary Microbiology, and Avian Diseases were the most productive journals. Keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and burst analyses identified infection mechanisms, molecular identification, antimicrobial resistance, and immune responses as the main research topics. These findings provide an overview of the development of APEC research and may support future studies on broad-spectrum vaccines, phage therapy, and microbiota-based interventions for APEC prevention and control.

Diarrheic calves can harbor E. coli with diverse antimicrobial resistance and virulence characteristics, complicating disease treatment and control. This study characterized antimicrobial resistance, resistance and virulence genes, phylogenetic groups, and experimental mouse lethality of E. coli isolated from diarrheic calves on two large-scale cattle farms in Hebei Province, China. Fecal samples from 102 diarrheic calves were examined. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion method, resistance and virulence genes and phylogenetic groups were determined by PCR, and lethality was evaluated in a mouse challenge model. Forty-five E. coli isolates were recovered (44.1%), mainly from phylogroup B1 (64.4%), followed by A (22.2%) and B2 (13.3%). Resistance was highest to ceftriaxone (26.7%), followed by ceftazidime (24.4%), ampicillin (22.2%) and tetracycline (13.3%), and 15.6% of isolates were multidrug resistant. blaTEM was detected in all isolates, based on generic PCR detection, while sul1, tetA, blaCTX-M-1, tetB, blaCTX-M-55, and qnrS occurred at 2.2–17.8%. Based on PCR detection of toxin-associated markers, isolates were assigned as molecular ETEC (n = 9), molecular STEC (n = 10), molecular ETEC/STEC hybrids (n = 6), or Other (n = 20). Twenty isolates (44.4%) showed high lethality in mice. These findings reveal substantial heterogeneity in antimicrobial resistance, virulence, and experimental lethality among calf-derived E. coli.