Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-05T20:18:16.661Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Strongyloides ratti: relative importance of maternal sources of infection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Mohamed Zamirdin
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Edinburgh University, Scotland
Peter A. G. Wilson
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Edinburgh University, Scotland

Extract

Milk-borne infection is demonstrated for Strongyloides ratti in rats, accounting for 32% of the combined worm burden of non-immune mothers plus their offspring at a standard dose of 4000 L3. Migrating larvae are ‘switched’ to the mammary gland about 3 days prepartum in advance of the final events of lactogenesis in the host at 30 h prepartum. Larvae take between 24–48 h to reach the milk after injection.

The ‘take’ in lactating rats was half that in virgin controls and pregnant animals before day 3 prepartum, but this discrepancy was not made up by the number of worms in the litter, the combined figure for mothers and offspring still being only 75% of the potential judged by the controls.

Prenatal infection did not occur in these experiments, which involved carefully controlled cross-fostering between infected and uninfected mothers. Injections of larvae covered the period between 12 days to 20 h prepartum in different animals. This route is possible under other circumstances, although it is considered unlikely in non-immune females since there was no evidence of larval dormancy in maternal tissue.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barrett, J. (1968). The effect of temperature on the development and survival of the infective larvae of Strongyloides ratti, Sandground 1925. Parasitology 58, 641–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batte, E. G. & Moncol, D. J. (1967). Colostral infection of newborn pigs by Strongyloides ransomi. Proceedings of the IIIrd International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Parasitology, pp. 272–6.Google Scholar
Blitz, N. M. & Gibbs, H. C. (1972). Studies on the arrested development of Haemonchus contortus in sheep. II. Termination of arrested development and the spring rise phenomenon. International Journal of Parasitology 2, 1322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brackett, S. & Bliznick, A. (1949). An attempt to adapt Strongyloides ratti to the mouse. Journal of Parasitology 35, 41–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connan, R. M. (1968). Studies on the worm populations in the alimentary tract of breeding ewes. Journal of Helminthology 42, 928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowie, A. T. (1972). Lactation and its hormonal control. In Hormones in Reproduction (ed. Austin, C. R. and Short, R. V.), pp. 106–43. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Darling, S. T. (1911). The intestinal worms of 300 insane patients detected by special methods. Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique 4, 331–41.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. R. & Baker, N. F. (1959). The chronology of experimental intrauterine infection with Toxocara canis (Werner 1782) in the dog. Journal of Parasitology 45 (4 section 2), 43.Google Scholar
Haley, A. J. (1962). Biology of the rat nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Travassos 1914). II. Preparasitic stages and development in the laboratory rat. Journal of Parasitology 48, 1323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kassai, T., Fitzpatrick, B. & Mulligan, W. (1966). Variables in the radiation-attenuation of helminth larvae: the effect of differences in the quality of radiation. Parasitology 56, 651–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelly, J. D. & Dineen, J. K. (1973). The suppression or rejection of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in Lewis strain rats treated with ovine prolactin: the site of the immunological defect. Immunology 24, 551–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Lyons, E. T., Drudge, J. H. & Tolliver, S. C. (1969). Parasites from mare's milk. The Blood Horse 95, 2270–1.Google Scholar
Lyons, E. T., Drudge, J. H. & Tolliver, S. C. (1970). Strongyloides larvae in milk of sheep and cattle. Modern Veterinary Practice 51, 65–8.Google Scholar
Lyons, E. T., Drudge, J. H. & Tolliver, S. C. (1973). On the life cycle of Strongyloides westeri in the equine. Journal of Parasitology 59, 780–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moncol, D. J. & Batte, E. G. (1966). Transcolostral infection of newborn pigs with Strongyloides ransomi. Veterinary Medicine/Small Animal Clinician 61, 583–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Ogilvie, B. M. & Jones, V. E. (1971). Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in the rat. A review of immunity and the host/parasite relationship. Experimental Parasitology 29, 138–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, O. W. & Lyons, E. T. (1962). Life cycle of the hookworm Uncinaria lucasi Stiles of northern fur seals, Callhorinus ursinus, on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. Journal of Parasitology 48 (supplement), 42–3.Google Scholar
Porter, D. A. (1935). A comparative study of Nippostrongylus muris in rats and mice. American Journal of Hygiene 22, 444–66.Google Scholar
Sheldon, A. J. (1937 a). Some experimental studies on Strongyloides ratti. American Journal of Hygiene 25, 3952.Google Scholar
Sheldon, A. J. (1937 b). Studies on active acquired resistance, natural and artificial, in the rat to infection with Strongyloides ratti. American Journal of Hygiene 25, 5365.Google Scholar
Stone, W. & Smith, F. W. (1973). Infection of mammalian hosts by milk-borne nematode larvae: A review. Experimental Parasitology 34, 306–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wertheim, G. & Lengy, J. (1965). Growth and development of Strongyloides ratti Sandground 1925 in the albino rat. Journal of Parasitology 51, 636–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed