100 male T.O. strain laboratory mice were divided into 4 equal groups: (I) 25 were injected intramuscularly with an antigen prepared together with Freund's adjuvant; (II) 25 injected with antigen alone; (III) 25 infected subcutaneously with 8 live plerocercoids of the same species; (IV) 25 served as controls. 4 weeks later all mice were given 6 live plerocercoids orally. The presence of acquired immunity in group III was shown by a significant reduction in the numbers, size and motility of challenge worms. The host response was greater in all the immunized groups than in the controls.

Protective immunity against Brugia pahangi was examined after adoptive transfer of immune spleen cells. Spleen cells obtained from gerbils at 8 weeks post-infection (p.i.) with 100 infective larvae (L3) of B. pahangi were transferred into naive recipients, and then 24 h later, they were infected with 100 L3 of B. pahangi. The recipients given normal spleen cells and infected by the same manner served as controls. Microfilarial counts in the circulation were monitored at designated times after infection and worm burden and the size of individual female worm were determined at 16 weeks p.i. to evaluate the effects of adoptive immunization. In addition, eosinophil responses and serum antibody titres were examined during the course of infection. In the control group, microfilariae first appeared in circulation at 9 weeks p.i. and continuously increased in number throughout the course examined. In contrast, microfilaraemia was almost completely suppressed in the group given immune spleen cells. Although worm burden was comparable between the two groups, the average size of female adult worms recovered from the adoptively immunized group was significantlysmaller than that from the control group. Eosinophil response was hastened and enhanced by adoptive transfer of immune spleen cells in the early stage of infection. Parasite- specific antibody response was also hastened by adoptive immunization. These results suggest that immune spleen cells could confer protective immunity mainly directed against adult B. pahangi.

Faecal pellets were collected from uninfected rats and rats infected with Hymenolepis diminuta, and analysed for caloric value, lipids, carbohydrates, glucose, amino acids, and proteins. Faeces from infected rats contained significantly more lipid and less carbohydrate and glucose than faeces from control rats. The total free amino acid content of faeces from infected and control rats did not differ, but there were significant differences in the amounts of individual free amino acids. The data support the hypothesis that the nutrient composition of faeces from infected and control hosts differ. Beetles that serve as the intermediate host for H. diminuta may be able to detect these differences, and this may explain why beetles preferentially ingest faeces containing the tapeworm's eggs.

Intestinal helminth infections constitute a major health problem in low socio-economic communities worldwide. A cross-sectional study was conducted in children aged between 12 and 60 months. A structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data and stool samples were subjected to direct smear, stained with Lugol's iodine, and formaldehyde–ether concentration techniques to determine the prevalence of intestinal helminth infections. The circumference of each child's left mid upper arm (MUAC) was measured using standard procedures. Two hundred and six children with a mean MUAC of 14.7 cm (SD ± 1.1) were assessed from September to December 2014. The prevalence of acute energy undernutrition was 6.3% (13/206). All of them had moderate acute undernutrition and no cases of severe acute undernutrition. Paternal occupation was significantly associated with MUAC. Intestinal helminth infections were detected in 12.6% of children. Four species of parasites were identified; Ascaris lumbricoides (9.7%) followed by Enterobius vermicularis (1.5%), Trichuris trichiura (1.0%) and hookworms (1.0%). Uninfected children aged between 1 and 2 years showed significantly higher MUAC than infected children. No statistically significant association was detected between the severity of intestinal helminth infections and MUAC. Although intestinal helminth infections are a major public health problem in this community, they are not related to MUAC. Future research, providing more insight into the nutritional impact of intestinal helminth infections, is required to determine the association between parasitic infections and physical growth in this community.

Five Swainson's spurfowl collected in Free State Province, South Africa, were examined for helminth parasites, and the nematodes Acuaria gruveli, Cyrnea parroti, Gongylonema congolense, Subulura dentigera, Subulura suctoria and a new Tetrameres species were recovered. Their respective prevalence was 100, 20, 80, 20, 20 and 20%. These nematodes are all new parasite records for Swainson's spurfowl, and Acuaria gruveli constitutes a new geographical record as well. A single specimen of Cyrnea eurycerca was found in an Orange River francolin, representing a new host and geographical record for this parasite. The new species, for which the name Tetrameres swainsonii is proposed, can be differentiated from its congeners by a combination of the following characters of males: two rows of body spines, a single spicule which is 1152–1392 μm long, and eight pairs of caudal spines arranged in two ventral and two lateral rows of four spines each. The single female has the globular shape typical of the genus.

1. The structure of the head in four samples of the genus Allodapa from Madagascar birds is described and shown to represent stages in the functional deformation of the pharyngeal portions.

2. All the specimens are considered to belong to Allodapa suctoria (Molin, 1860) s.l. and are described. Their hosts are: Margaroperdix sp. Centropus toulou, Coua caerulea and C. raynandii.

3. The species of the family Subuluridae known from Madagascar hosts are discussed and it is shown that they represent a minor parasite fauna which has most probably been secondarily introduced.

4. It is reported that Subulura prosimiae Baer, 1935 is indistinguishable from Primasubulura distans (Rudolphi, 1819) and that the record of the former species given by Chabaud and Petter (1958), based only on females, is that of a Subulura species and not a Primasubulura.

5. A Subulura species is reported from Coua gigas.

1. Chabertiella pesteri gen. and sp. nov. from the giraffe (Giraffe camelopardalis) is described.

2. Chabertia rishati Akhtar, 1937 is synonymized with Chabertia ovina (Gmelin, 1790) Railliet and Henry, 1909.

Dunnifilaria dilli, a new species of filariid from Rattus koratensis from Thailand is described. Adult worms were recovered from the lymphatic system. They differ from D. ramachandrani in their location in the host, the tail length, the shape of the spicules, and in the number of caudal papillae. Microfilariae are much smaller and unsheathed. Additional hosts include R. rattus and R. sabanus.

The material upon which this study is based was obtained from a Grey Sand-Hamster (Cricetulus griseus) which died in captivity at the experimental farm of the Institute of Agricultural Parasitology. Several examples of two species of hamster were received from Dr. Hindle on his return from China, the specimen furnishing the worms being one of these. On death a post-mortem examination of the animal was made and the cestodes removed and preserved in dilute formalin. Some weeks subsequently the parasites were examined and found to differ from the descriptions of other species of Hymenolepis encountered in hamsters and the present study was entered upon.

While examining some sections of a specimen of Inermicapsifer hyracis (Rud.), we came across an extremely interesting and, what we believe to be, a unique occurrence.

The aim of this study was to examine whether there was an increase of suppressor T cells, relative to helper T cells, in the intestinal lamina propria of Hymenolepis diminuta-infected rats, a condition which might allow the parasite to survive for the life-span of the host. Lamina propria cells were isolated by enzymatic procedure. All lymphocytes were passed over nylon wool columns in order to remove B cells; then the T cells were purified by a panning technique using monoclonal anti-T cell antibodies. Changes in the mitogen-stimulated synthesis of 1gM, IgG and IgA by normal peripheral blood indicator lymphocytes, as measured by sandwich ELISA, was used as an index of help and/or suppression. No significant suppressor T cell activity was observed in the cultures, either from control or infected intestine.

A study of larval development of Schistosoma haematobium in the snail Planorbarius metidjensis infected by transplanted sporocysts showed that some embryos in daughter sporocysts have characters intermediate between cercariae and sporocysts. These embryos are interpreted to be nearly mature cercariae that have partially reverted to be secondary sporocysts. If this explanation is correct, it would mean that the embryos which develop within trematode daughter sporocysts can differentiate either into cercariae or into a new generation of sporocysts, but originate from a single type of germinal cell.

One male and four females were recovered from the anterior part of the intestine of the house rat, Rattus rattus kijabius in Kenya. They were found to belong to an undescribed species of trichostrongyloid for which the name Longistriata (Brevispiculoides) kenyae is proposed. I wish to thank my friend Mr. W. F. J. McClelland for the material, and Professor J. J. C. Buckley for his interest in the work.

Gould (1970) stated that “asyet,roentgenographic technics cannot demonstrate trichinae in skeletal muscle”. We have found no report of X-ray film demonstration of Trichinella cysts in muscle in the literature to date. Rogers et al. (1975) used the technique of xeroradiography to show living and calcified filarial worms (Brugia pahangi) in the infected lymphatics of cats and we have had an opportunity to use this method to examine calcified Trichinella cysts in infected muscle.

Third-stage larvae of Angiostrongylus costaricensis were cultured to young adult stages in Waymouth's chemically defined medium MB 752/l, which comprises higher concentrations of the essential components histidine, lysine, methionine, tryptophan, choline chloride and glucose than various other chemically defined media. The present study has shown that choline chloride and tryptophan are required at relatively higher concentrations for worm development than those of the other essential components.

An in vivo study in goats evaluated the effect of superimposing a single artificial infection with a benzimidazole (BZ)-susceptible Haemonchus contortus isolate upon established H. contortus populations of known BZ resistance by measuring the phenotypic BZ resistance of eggs collected from faeces before and after re-infection. Two H. contortus isolates, one benzimidazole resistant (BZR) and the other susceptible (BZS), were used to infect worm-free goats. Eight goats were initially infected with 2000 third-stage larvae (L3). In each case the inoculum contained a pre-determined proportion of the two isolates: 100% BZS (one goat), 75% BZS/25% BZR (two goats), 50% BZS/50% BZR (two goats), 25%BZS/75% BZR (two goats) and, finally, 100% BZR (one goat). The phenotypic BZ susceptibility of the H. contortus population formed in each goat after the first infection was determined on days 30 and 36 post-infection using an egg-hatch assay (EHA) that estimated the concentration of thiabendazole (TBZ) required for 95% inhibition of larval hatching (EC95) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). On day 49 post-infection, goats were re-infected with 2000 L3 of the BZS isolate alone. A second set of EHA bioassays was performed 28 days and 34 days after re-infection. The first infection protocol produced three populations classified as BZS (EC95 0.055–0.065 μg TBZ/ml) while four were categorized as BZR (EC95 0.122–0.344 μg TBZ/ml). The status of one other population could not be determined. After re-infection with BZS L3, the number of susceptible populations increased to six (EC95 0.043–0.074 μg TBZ/ml) while the remaining two were deemed resistant (EC95 0.114–119 μg TBZ/ml). Re-infection with BZS L3 thereby reduced the resistance status of most H. contortus populations.

Experimental infections of pre-adult Galba truncatula (two populations) using one, two, three or five miracidia of Fasciola hepatica per snail were carried out to determine the total number of cercariae produced by snails when they were sacrificed at day 70 post-exposure (at 24°C). When the number of miracidia used for each snail increased at exposure, significant numerical augmentations of live rediae and of intraredial differentiating cercariae were noted. In contrast, only insignificant differences between mean numbers of free cercariae were found. The number of metacercariae produced by each snail (after shedding and/or after dissection) increased in infections with up to three miracidia per snail in each population and strongly decreased in infections with five miracidia per snail. Compared to the other types of infections, the delay of cercarial differentiation noted in the five-miracidia groups was probably due to the volume of the snail host, which would be too small to assure the complete development of five sporocysts.

In a flock of 20 ewes naturally infected with those parasites of sheep most common in Greece, and kept indoors during the whole trial, oxfendazole at the dose rate of approximately 2–9 and 2–8 mg/kg body-weight was tested as a 4 g bolus containing 112 mg active ingredient and a 2–265% suspension. The evaluation of its efficacy was based on the necropsy findings which were also supported by faecal egg counts. No differences in efficacy were noticed between the two formulations of the drug. Both bolus and suspension proved to be 100% effective against Haemonchus contortus, Ostertagia circumcincta, Trichostrongylus axei, T. colubriformis and Chabertia ovina. The efficacy against Cooperia oncophora, Nematodirus spathiger, Bunostomum trigonocephalum, Oesophagostomum columbianum and Moniezia expansa could not be evaluated, because these species, though not found in any of the treated animals, were found in fewer than three controls.