Mortality and survival of young male mice given single massive doses of Trichinella spiralis larvae

Three hundred thirty-three 5-week-old male Swiss albino mice divided into 11 equal groups in four experiments were inoculated with single graded doses of Trichinella spiralis larvae. Doses ranged from 400 to 51,200 larvae per mouse. Within the limits of these experiments, (1) the number of deaths among mice infected with increasing numbers of larvae increased until a mortality of one hundred per cent (100%) was reached. (2) Mean and median survival times varied inversely with the size of the inoculum. (3) There was no assurance that mean survival times for groups of homogeneous mice inoculated with equal dosages in different experiments would be comparable or precisely predictable.