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Albendazole was effective in destroying Strongylus vulgaris larvae in verminous lesions of the cranial mesenteric artery when administered as a 20% suspension by stomach tube to ponies. Fifty mg/kg body weight administered twice a day for 2 days caused death and gradual disintegration of larvae over a period of 3 to 6 weeks with mild toxic signs appearing in 3 of 11 ponies. Higher total doses of albendazole (50 mg/kg twice a day for 4 days and 25 mg/kg three times a day for 5 days) lead to more rapid disintegration of the larvae but fatal toxicity was observed in 3 of 6 ponies so treated. In all cases, resolution of verminous arterial lesions was delayed until larva remains had disappeared from the lesions. A non-parametric analysis was applied to combined radiographic, pathologic and parasitologic observations and data for testing their statistical significance

Filaroides hirthi sp. n. is smaller than previously described species of the genus Filaroides v. Beneden, 1858, and differs from F. milksi Whitlock, 1956, with which it is most likely to be confused, in having shorter, slightly stouter spicules with a broader proximal knob for attachment of the retractor muscles.

The circular and longitudinal muscle coats of equine "midcolon" were found to be directly electrically coupled. They appear to act in concert, in healthy animals, as a pacemaker in the area of the large colon pelvic flexure, for retropulsive-propulsive myoelectrical events. The retropulsive events keep the cecum and right ventral and left ventral divisions of the colon filled, imposing a delay time for fermentation of cellulose and for bacterial protein synthesis. Point-to-point involvement of adjacent colon sections was slowed by cooling the intestinal contents with no adverse clinical signs. Diminution of the blood flow to this regulatory area was achieved in 12 weanling foals (raised parasite-free) by parasitic cranial mesenteric arteritis, using Strongylus vulgaris larvae. Four of the 12 developed clinical signs of abdominal pain, but on necropsy 3 of these 4 had no gross lesions in the gastrointestinal tract. Dissociation of the left ventral and left dorsal colon divisions, as regards intraluminal pressure events and their antecedent myoelectrical action potentials, was induced in 7 of 8 adult animals given an acaricide which under field conditions is associated with progressive large colon obstruction and colic.

Encephalitis was diagnosed in a 3 1/2-month-old puppy, based on neurological signs, and cerebrospinal fluid examinations. Verminous encephalitis from a migrating Cuterebra sp. larva in the right cerebral hemisphere was confirmed at necropsy.

The parasite burden of captive and colony-born woodchucks maintained in laboratory animal facilities was determined and compared to woodchucks recently trapped. Microfilariae of Ackertia marmotae in blood or dermis were most commonly observed in trapped woodchucks. There was a linear decrease in woodchucks positive for microfilariae after introduction in the laboratory colony, but even after 39 months, 53% were positive. Microfilaremia or microfilariderma were never observed in colony born woodchucks. Eggs or oocysts of Obeliscoides cuniculi, Citellina triradiata and Eimeria sp. were found by fecal flotation. The O. cuniculi population declined exponentially in captive woodchucks following colony entry, and this nematode was never found in colony-born woodchucks. However, low rates of infection with Citellina and Eimeria sp. were found in the colony-born group. Ixodes cookei, Oropsylla sp., and Androlaelaps sp. ectoparasites were observed commonly in recently trapped woodchucks, but were not present in any woodchucks maintained in the colony. Clinical disease associated with parasitic infection was not observed.

Microfilarial periodicity displayed by dogs infected with Dirofilaria immitis was analyzed using the methematical model proposed by Sasa and Tanaka (S.E. Asian J. Trop. Med. and Pub. Health 4, 1974, 518-536) except that Pearson's product-moment correlation test was substituted for their Chi-square analysis to estimate goodness of fit. Samples were drawn at 3 hour intervals for periods of 24 or 48 hours in a series of 10 studies conducted on 4 dogs. No significant differences were observed in microfilarial concentration between samples of venous and cutaneous capillary blood. Significant correlation of observed microfilarial densities with the values predicted by the model were observed in 7 of the 10 studies with r2 values ranging from 78.8 to 95.3%. The periodicity index ranged from 28.33 to 53.50 in these 7 studies and thus fell in the subperiodic category. The estimated hour of peak microfilarial density was not confined to the late afternoon as generally believed; for example, values of 04:00 and 22:00 hours were observed. Thus D. immitis microfilaremia cannot accurately be characterized either as diurnal or as nocturnal. Observation of the behavior of the experimental dogs led to an hypothesis that emotional and environmental stresses placed on the host may induce transients in the microfilarial density that may overwhelm or obscure the periodicity function.

Dogs and cats become infected with tapeworms by ingesting intermediate hosts that contain encysted juvenile tapeworms called larvae. The dog or cat is said to be the definitive host because it shelters the sexually reproductive, egg-producing stage of the tapeworm. The intermediate hosts, which are vertebrates in the case of Taenia and Mesocestoides and insects in the case of Dipylidium and Hymenolepis, become infected by ingesting unhatched but infective tapeworm eggs discharged in the feces of the dog or cat. The relatively less common Diphyllobothrium and Spirometra tapeworms discharge eggs that are undeveloped when passed in the feces and must fall into water to undergo development to the coracidium stage. Diphyllobothrium and Spirometra may have two or three aquatic intermediate hosts in series. The first of these, a copepod, ingests the free-swimming coracidium or ciliated oncosphere that has hatched from the egg. The final intermediate host containing the larva (plerocercoid) infective for the dog or cat is an aquatic vertebrate (fish, frog, water snake). Thus, dogs and cats become infected with tapeworms by eating uncooked meat or fish or by ingesting certain insects. These intermediate hosts are infected with juvenile tapeworms called larvae, which are the infective form for the dog or cat. The intermediate hosts, in turn, become infected by ingesting tapeworm eggs discharged in the feces of the dog or cat or, in the case of Diphyllobothrium and Spirometra, by ingesting coracidia that have subsequently developed in and hatched from such eggs. By far the most common tapeworms of dogs and cats in North America are D. caninum, T. pisiformis, and T. hydatigena. Therefore, the most common sources of tapeworm infection are, respectively, fleas, wild rabbits, and the uncooked meat and offal of ruminants and swine. Whenever a dose of tapeworm remedy is administered or dispensed, the client should be informed of these potential sources of reinfection. There is considerable overlap in the spectra of activity of currently available cestocides. Mebendazole, fenbendazole, niclosamide, bunamidine, and praziquantel are all effective against Taenia spp. Bunamidine is the drug of choice against Spirometra, Diphyllobothrium, and Mesocestoides. Praziquantel is the drug of choice against Echinococcus and Dipylidium.

The number of schistosomula in the axillary lymph nodes of mice was determined by compressed tissue autoradiography at 13 intervals from 0.5 to 28 days after exposure of abdominal skin to 75Se-labeled cercariae of S. mansoni. Significant accumulations were observed between days 3 and 6 and peaked on day 4 at which time 9.4 +/- 1.1% of the schistosomula present in the whole body were found in the axillary lymph nodes. The total number and distribution of schistosomula in all tissues of mice were likewise determined at 12 intervals from 3 to 24 days following exposure. The frequent appearance of small numbers of schistosomula in trachea and esophagus suggested that normal attrition resulted at least in part from physical expulsion of schistosomula from the body by way of the tracheobronchial tree and gastrointestinal tract. The distribution of schistosomula observed in heart chambers, caudal vena cava, hepatic portal vein, aorta, intestinal wall, thoracic cavity rinses, and diaphragm supported all 3 standing hypotheses regarding route of migration from lungs to hepatic portal system, i.e., that schistosomula migrate via (1) the pulmonary artery, right heart, caudal vena cava, and hepatic veins, (2) the pulmonary vein, left heart, aorta, and cranial mesenteric artery, and (3) the thoracic cavity and diaphragm.

Artificially hatched infective larvae of Toxocara canis were labeled with 75Se in Medium 199 (Gibco) containing 75Se-methionine. Male CD-1 mice were infected with radiolabeled larvae by intragastric intubation or by intraperitoneal injection. At intervals of 3-56 days mice were killed and the organs prepared for compressed organ autoradiography. Radioactivity of parasitic larvae showed an exponential decrease with time, reflecting catabolism of label with a biological half life of 26 days (effective half life of 21 days) making possible experiments lasting several months. Total body larva counts, estimated by total body autoradiography, displayed an overall downward trend, but the rate of reduction was probably not constant because no significant positive or negative trends were noted from day 14 onward in the numbers of larvae. The carcass accumulated the greatest number of larvae followed by the central nervous system, liver, and lung in that order. When the numbers of larvae were considered in relationship to the mass of tissue, there were 4 groupings: central nervous system, liver, lung, carcass, and kidney, and genito-urinary organ, pelt, and intestine. No significant difference between intragastric and intraperitoneal administration was observed in the larval distribution after the larvae had left the initial site of deposition.

Eleven gamma-emitting radionuclides (49Sc, 54Mn, 59Fe (+2 and +3), 60Co, 65Zn, 75Se (as selenomethionine, selenocystine, selenite and selenate), 109Cd, 125Sb, 133Ba, 137Cs and 203Hg) were screened as labelling agents for Schistosoma mansoni cercariae by incubation of infected Biomphalaria glabrata snails in radioactive solution according to the technique of Christensen (1977). Only [75Se]methionine yielded satisfactorily labelled cercariae. Multiple regression analysis of volume, number of cercariae and radioactivity from a series of 10 aliquots of unwashed cercarial suspensions yielded estimates of unbound and cercarial bound radioactivity that were equivalent or superior to estimates based on assay of washed cercariae and eliminated loss of cercariae. Washing of cercarial suspensions over 8 micrometers pore diameter Millipore filters was found to result in entanglement of 60-90% of the cercariae on the filter disc. Differential external radioassay, a new technique employing partial body shielding within a total body counter, permitted separate estimation of tail and body radioactivity of conscious mice previously exposed by tail immersion to 75Se-labelled cercariae, with measurements repeated as often as desired. Approximately 39% of the 75Se present in emergent cercariae was retained by schistosomula transformed in vitro but this was subject to considerable variation, especially in schistosomula transformed in vivo. Secreted or catabolized label from penetrant cercariae and schistosomula was rapidly removed from the skin by the bloodstream. Numbers of schistosomula in tail skin were directly proportional to the number of reduced silver foci counted on tail autoradiograms; only a very small fraction of tail radioactivity represented unbound ('spurious') label. Migration of schistosomula away from skin was 50% complete at 3.8-4.3 days, as determined by probit analysis of autoradiographic data.

Filaroides hirthi lungworm infection increased as a function of age among 47, 9 to 32 week old Beagle pups at a commercial breeding establishment. Probit analysis of these data yielded an estimate of 50% infection was by age 17.4 +/- 3.7 weeks. This parasite and/or its associated lesions remained in at least 40% of infected Beagles at least 10 months after exposure to infection had ceased. Reinfection rendered improbable by the nature of the new environment, a laboratory animal colony. Repeated efforts have failed to demonstrate by the Baermann technique eggs or larvae of this parasite in the feces, bronchial mucus, or intact lung tissue of infected Beagles. All efforts to identify an intermediate or alternate definitive hosts have likewise proved unavailing. Piperazines, dichlorvos, thiabendazole, dithiazanine iodide, and levamisole appear to be without effect on the proportion of Beagles infected. The diet, which contained uncooked meat, was fed in a controlled experiment to 10 Beagles from an uninfected source without producing a single case of F. hirthi infection. Life cycles of other members of the superfamily Metastrongyloidea and possible explanations for the non-patency of F. hirthi infection are discussed.

Ten radioisotopes (133Ba, 207Bi, 109Cd, 51Cr, 59Fe, 203Hg, 54Mn, 125Sb and 75Se) were used to label the L-3 stage of Brugia malayi. The in vitro uptake at 4 hours in a buffered salt solution was greatest for 207Bi and exceeded that of 203Hg, by a factor of 6 and the rest of the radionuclides by factors of 26 or more. Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) (1%) in the medium only slightly enhanced the uptake of 207Bi but increased 203Hg uptake by a factor of 2.5. After incubation in non-radioactive medium only 2% of the 207Bi was retained; for 203Hg the retention was 70% or better. Increasing the labeling time increased total uptake and retention of the radionuclides. The retention of the 203Hg injected intraperitoneally into jirds (Meriones unguiculatus) in the form of labeled L-3s was followed over a 16 day period by counting the jirds in a whole animal NaI crystal detector. One L-4 stage of B malayi was recovered at the end of this period.

Transmission of Filaroides hirthi among cagemate pups was demonstrated to occur through the ingestion of first-stage larvae in recently passed feces. It was suggested that coprophagia is the principal mechanism of transmission of F hirthi and that transmission from brood bitches to their litters occurs by this mechanism during and after the fourth or fifth week of the nursing period. Medication of 15 infected brood bitches with two courses of albendazole at a dosage rate of 50 mg/kg of body weight twice each day for 5 days resulted in complete absence of F hirthi infection among all 21 of their progeny, whereas 16 of 19 progeny (84%) from 14 nontreated infected dams harbored F hirthi worms.

Under the conditions of an optimized (with regard to caries prevention) fluoride content of the drinking uater, the authors studied (in the framework of an oral hygiene measure covering 32 months) in 149 children 6.5-8 years of age the effects of supervised daily dental and oral care on dental health. The improvement in oral hygiene (OHI) by 33% is in harmony with an additional caries reduction by 33.3% (DMF/S index) and a decrease of the PM index by 47%. A wider use of oral hygiene actions as secondary preventive measures is, therefore, recommended also for towns with fluoridated drinking water.

An isolated case and an outbreak of parelaphostrongylosis in goats are described. Signs included tetraparesis, hemiparesis, tetraplegia, spastic gait, scoliosis, vestibular strabismus, blindness, and death. Five cases were necropsied and nematodes were seen in the brain and spinal cord of four of these. Intact adult nematodes from two cases were identified as Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, the meningeal worm of white-tailed deer. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis from affected goats showed a moderately elevated protein content, evidence of hemorrhage, and mononuclear cell and eosinophil pleocytosis. Recoveries are recorded.

The number of schistosomula in lungs was determined by compressed organ autoradiography at intervals up to 14 days after exposure of mice to 75Se-labelled cercariae by tail immersion. Probit analysis of compressed lung autoradiogram focus counts, expressed as percentages of initial infection level, yielded estimates of the average time of arrival, peak accumulation in the lungs and average time of departure of schistosomula: 4.5 +/- 0.87, 6.3 +/- 0.45 and 11 +/- 0.58 days, respectively. At peak accumulation 92 +/- 3.5% of the initial number of schistosomula were found in the lungs. It thus appears that little or no significant attrition of schistosomula occurred in the skin and, instead, that most of the 50-70% of penetrant cercariae that fail to reach adulthood are lost somewhere between the pulmonary and hepatic phases of development. Loss of 75Se label from schistosomula during the first 14 days was exponential, with an average half-life of 4.5 +/- 0.81 days. However, the high sensitivity of autoradiography tended to compensate for this rather rapid rate of label loss. It was pointed out that autoradiographic detection of schistosomula as discrete loci of radioactivity can also be expected to overcome the problem posed by the accumulation in such tissues as liver and kidney of 75Se label that has become separated from larvae.

Albendazole given at a dosage rate of 25 to 50 mg/kg twice daily for 5 days killed all but a small proportion and sterilized the few surviving Filaroides hirthi worms in artificially infected Beagle pups. Extensive tissue reaction around the dead worms persisted for an undetermined length of time. However, albendazole treatment of mature stock should prove useful in preventing transmission of F hirthi infection to their offspring and thus provide an efficient means of control.

Lung radioassay and compressed lung autoradiography of 75Se-labeled schistosomula were used to quantify lung schistosomula. Recovery of schistosomula from minced lung tissue after a 4-hr incubation yielded 69.4 +/- 6.3% of the total number present as demonstrated by subsequent autoradiography of these tissues. Radioassay of lung tissue was considered a valid alternative to autoradiography only for parallel comparisons and those not requiring estimation of the actual number of schistosomula. The number of schistosomula in the lungs on day 6 was significantly correlated with radioactivity in the tail on day 1 (r2 = 91.8%). It was concluded that compressed lung autoradiography provides both an alternative to and an adjunct to standard schistosomulum recovery techniques in the assay of early S. mansoni infections.

Haemonchus contortus infective larvae incorporated between 5 and 12 pCi/larva for each muCi of 75Se-methionine added per gram of fecal sediment. Thorough admixture of 75Se-methionine and fecal sediment was necessary to obtain approximately normal distribution and low variance of individual larval radioactivities. Ecdysis induced by treatment with 0.025% HClO in vitro resulted in loss of approximately 40% of the 75Se label of infective larvae. Loss of 75Se by parasitic larvae and adult H. contortus in vivo conformed to a two-component negative exponential function with half lives of 3.1 and 56 days acting on compartments representing 90% and 10%, respectively, of the 75Se label remaining after ecdysis. Labeled and unlabeled worms were readily distinguished by autoradiography 37 days after infection. No effect of gamma radiation arising from decay of 75Se in the range 130 to 1,300 pCi/larva could be measured in terms of survival or sex ratio of worms recovered at 17 days PI.

The author discusses the parasites that infect the nasal passages, trachea, bronchi, and lung parenchyma of dogs and cats. The clinical signs, diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment, and control of infection are also considered.

A 63-year-old, white, animal caretaker suffered intermittent abdominal pain and diarrhea of 3 weeks duration. Hematological findings included leukocytosis (18,600) with eosinophilia (73%). Fecal examination revealed Stongyloides rhabditiform larvae which on culture yielded a preponderance of filariform larvae and a few free-living adults. Thiabendazole therapy resulted in rapid recovery. Epidemiological investigation yielded no history of previous Strongyloides infection or exposure; his wife and pet dog were not infected, but about one-third of the dogs in the colony under his care were found to be discharging Stongyloides rhaditiform larvae in their feces. Strongyloides infection was successfully trasmitted to specific pathogen-free pups using filariform larvae derived both from the human case and from the dog colony. Specimens recovered from one pup infected with filariform larvae of human origin were identified as Strongyloides stercoralis.

Type II ostertagiosis was found at necropsy in 9 American bison (Bison bison) from 3 farms in New York. Clinical signs included severe diarrhea, emaciation, unthrifty coats, anemia, and weakness. In severely affected animals, the macroscopic abomasal changes consisted of irregular thickening and edema of the mucosa, resulting in a pebbly or morocco-leather appearance. Microscopically, many gastric pits and glands were dilated, lined by hyperplastic epithelium, and contained nematode sections or debris. Parasites recovered included Ostertagia ostertagi, Trichostrongylus axei, Trichostrongylus lerouxi, Cooperia oncophora, Haemonchus contortus, Nematodirus helvetianus, Trichuris discolor, Setaria labiato-papillosa, Dictyocaulus viviparus, Hypoderma lineatum, and Sarcocystis sp. Nodules in the small and large intestine were attributed to Oesophagostomum sp. Trichostrongylus lerouxi, Trichuris discolor, and Nematodirus helvetianus are reported from bison for the first time.

Two commercial research Beagle breeding colonies began a control program for Filaroides hirthi. All stud dogs and all nonpregnant, nonlactating brood bitches were given two courses, 2-4 weeks apart, of 25 mg/kg body weight albendazole per os twice daily for 5 days. Puppies of treated dams were isolated from puppies of nontreated dams. The proportions of infected puppies of puppies killed in 1979 were 45% and 78% from the two colonies. After 1979, the proportions were 0.2% and 24%. One colony may have had a problem with albendazole toxicity; the problem was stopped by changing the diet.

Nineteen weanling pigs were each infected per os with 200 fourth stage Ascaris serum larvae and were fed either a low protein or a high protein diet for 8 weeks. Worms expelled during the 8 weeks were recovered and all worms remaining in the gastrointestinal tract at slaughter were collected. Fifty-four percent of all worms were recovered at slaughter. Ten of the 19 animals maintained an infection for 8 weeks; the other 9 showed no signs of A. suum infection. A total of 377 worms were recovered. Average worm burdens were 37.7 worms per pig, 50.8 worms per low protein pig, and 30.8 worms per high protein pig. Times of and possible causes for expulsion are discussed. Procedure for infection of pigs is discussed in detail and possible improvements in technique are suggested.

Migration and elimination of radiolabeled Schistosoma mansoni were compared in naive and irradiated cercaria-immunized mice by autoradiography of compressed host tissues. The results indicated that 1) most of the normal elimination of schistosomula in unimmunized mice and the additional elimination in immunized mice occur at some point(s) after arrival of schistosomula in the lungs and before their development into adult worms, 2) migration of schistosomula from skin to lungs is delayed for several days but not reduced in immunized mice, 3) migration of schistosomula from lungs to liver is delayed for several days in immunized mice, and 4) schistosomula reach the liver in reduced numbers or are killed and cleared in the liver in greater numbers in immunized mice. The lung chop procedure was shown to recover schistosomula from control and irradiated cercaria-immunized mice with equal efficiency. Autoradiography of all tissues of the body demonstrated that, in both control and immunized mice, at least 20-25% of the schistosomula detectable 2 and 3 weeks after infection were present in tissues other than the skin, lungs and liver.