The distribution of a primary infestation of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in the small intestine of laboratory rats

Abstract

The small intestine of rats was divided into twenty sections in a reproducible manner in order to study the distribution of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis by stretching it under a tension of 5g in adrenaline saline.A small but significant difference between the distribution of parasites in male and female rats was observed.As larvae had virtually ceased to reach the intestine by the fifth day all changes in distribution after that day were due to movements of the established adult population.Up to the twelfth day of a primary infestation the majority of the worms were found between the third and tenth sections, the population mode being in the fifth or sixth section. After the thirteenth day the number of worms in this region fell sharply.The female worms had not ceased from egg-laying by the time most of the worms were being rejected.The posterior half of the small intestine, i.e. the eleventh to twentieth sections, was not heavily parasitized, many of the worms seen being in passage to the anus.The first section was not parasitized until the seventh day, but thereafter remained parasitized until long after worms had disappeared from the more posterior sections.The relative number of male worms present increased as the infestation aged.Throughout the experiment the relative number of male worms present at the anterior end of the smaller intestine was higher than that at the posterior.Fourth-stage larvae were found chiefly in the sections that were later most heavily parasitized by adult worms.