D. Imbertestablet et al., PERMISSIVENESS OF 2 AFRICAN WILD RODENTS, MASTOMYS HUBERTI AND ARVICANTHIS NILOTICUS, TO SCHISTOSOMA INTERCALATUM - EPIDEMIOLOGIC CONSEQUENCES, Parasitology research, 83(6), 1997, pp. 569-573
The compatibility between Schistosoma intercalatum (Cameroon) and two
wild rodents commonly found in Africa, Mastomys huberti (the multimamm
ate mouse) and Arvicanthis niloticus (the Nile rat) was studied to det
ermine their biological capacities to act as hosts for S. intercalatum
. In both rodent species the general mean worm recovery was high (33 /- 0.1% in M. huberti and 33.8 +/- 0.1% in A. niloticus) and worm mort
ality was very low from 6 to 20 weeks postinfection; parasite maturity
was reached. The high number of released eggs as well as the viabilit
y and the infectivity of the miracidia to the snail vector showed that
M. huberti and A. niloticus are very permissive to S. intercalatum an
d may act as hosts for the human disease.