STRONGYLOIDES-STERCORALIS - THE 1ST RODENT MODEL FOR UNCOMPLICATED AND HYPERINFECTIVE STRONGYLOIDIASIS, THE MONGOLIAN GERBIL (MERIONES-UNGUICULATUS)

Strongyloidiasis is the most common endemic helminthiasis in several o f the world's industrialized nations, yet relatively little is known a bout its basic biology and immunobiology because a practical rodent mo del for the investigation of this clinically important parasitism is l acking. This study reports such a model for use in the investigation o f Strongyloides stercoralis infection. Normal male gerbils infected su bcutaneously with 1000 infective filariform larvae harbored moderate n umbers (83.6 +/- 27.6) of adult worms at 35 days after infection, and a low-grade infection persisted for at least 131 days mimicking the ch ronicity of human infections. Gerbils treated weekly with 2 mg of meth ylprednisolone acetate developed hyperinfective strongyloidiasis with up to 8000 autoinfective larvae occurring in these animals at postinfe ction day 21. Autoinfection never occurred in normal (untreated) gerbi ls.