[Laboratory animal infection in modeling intestinal schistosomiasis]

A comparative efficiency of different regimes for infecting laboratory animals has been determined in order to find out optimal conditions under which an experimental model of intestinal schistosomiasis (infection with Schistosoma mansoni) can be maintained. When evaluating the results of laboratory definitive hosts infection we took into account the character of Schistosoma distribution in animals, which with high probability rate was modelled by means of negative binomial distribution. The main parameters of this distribution were used for determination of effective doses and methods of animals infection alongside with generally accepted indices of infection rate and intensiveness. Analysis of the data obtained has shown that the infection of 150 cercarians per mouse and 200 cercarians per golden and striped hairy-footed hamster by their subcutaneous administration creates optimal density of parasites in the host. Results of investigations have shown that striped hairy-footed hamsters can be used as definitive hosts of Schistosoma.