title: The relationship between intestinal location and fecundity in adult Trichinella spiralis.
abstract: Adult female worms recovered from the jejunum of rats infected per os with 1000 larvae of Trichinella spiralis were significantly more fecund (peak jejunal fecundity = 35.7 +/- 3.1 newborn larvae per female) than females recovered from the terminal ileum (9.3 +/- 4.1 larvae per female) in the same infections. The majority of the adult worms were established in those sections of the small intestines that produced the most fecund females (r = 0.92; P less than 0.05). Worm fecundity is believed to be location-specific because adult females that were surgically implanted into the jejunum were significantly more fecund that were implanted into only the ileum. It is concluded that the physico-chemical conditions of the anterior small intestines are optimal for the parasites' reproductive fitness and this exerts a strong selective pressure on habitat selection behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Sukhdeo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D007411:Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / Q000469:parasitology*; D007422:Intestines / Q000469:parasitology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D014234:Trichinella / Q000502:physiology*; D014235:Trichinellosis / Q000469:parasitology*