Edoardo Perroncito

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

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).