Susceptibility of laboratory primates to infection with Mansonella ozzardi from man

The study was undertaken to determine primates were susceptible to infection with Caribbean and/or Amazon strains of Mansonella ozzardi of man. Twenty-three animals including three chimpanzees, four squirrel monkeys, one capuchin, five rhesus and 10 patas monkeys each received, by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection, 25-170 infective larvae of M. ozzardi harvested either from infected Culicoides furens collected in Haiti or Simulium sp. (sanguineum complex) collected in the Colombian Amazon and transported to our laboratories in Louisiana. Patent infections were obtained in seven of 10 patas monkeys but not in any other species of primates. The prepatent period ranged in duration from 149-186 days with a mean of 168 days. All of the patas monkeys developed modest microfilaremias that persisted for as long as 1 year, the duration of our observations. Adult worms were obtained at necropsy from three of four patas monkeys. The worms were recovered from soakings of the carcass and skin rather than from the abdominal cavity and mesenteries. However, their precise habitat was not determined.