Edoardo Perroncito

Edoardo Bellarmino Perroncito (10 March 1847, Viale in the Province of Asti – 4 November 1936) was an Italian parasitologist. He was the father of pathologist Aldo Perroncito (1882–1929).

Edoardo Perroncito

He earned his degree in veterinary medicine, and in 1879 he became a professor of parasitology to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Turin.^[1]

Remembered for his extensive research of Ancylostoma duodenale (hookworm), in 1880 he determined that hookworm was the cause of anemia being suffered by workmen building the St. Gotthard railway tunnel.^[2][3] He was the first to recommend using an extract of the Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) as a remedy for the disease.^[4][5] In 1878 he identified the highly contagious disease of domestic fowl  which is considered to be the first historical record of avian influenza (initially known as a fowl plague).^[6][7]

Selected writings

• L'anemia dei contadini, fornaciai e minatori in rapporto coll'attuale epidemia negli operai del Gottardo. Studi ed osservazioni, profilassi e cura, 1881 - The anemia of farmers, miners and kiln workers in relation to the epidemic of the St. Gotthard workers. Study and observation, prevention and remedy.
• La Tubercolosi dei bovini in rapporto alla tubercolosi umana, 1903 - Tuberculosis in cattle in relation to human tuberculosis.
• La malattia dei minatori, dal S. Gottardo al Sempione, una questione risolta, 1909 - The disease of miners, St. Gotthard to Simplon, a settled issue.^[8]