title: Evidences against a significant role of Mus musculus as natural host for Angiostrongylus costaricensis.
abstract: Wild rodents have been described as the most important hosts for Angiostrongylus costaricensis in Central America and southern Brazil. Sinantropic rodents apparently do not play a significant role as natural hosts. A search for natural infection failed to document worms in 14 mice captured in the house of a patient with diagnosis of abdominal angiostrongylosis and experimental infection of a "wild" Mus musculus strain and groups of albino swiss mice were carried out. Mortality was not significantly different and varied from 42% to 80% for Swiss mice and from 26% to 80% for "wild" mice. The high mortality of a "wild" M. musculus infected with A. costaricensis was very similar to what is observed with most laboratory mice strains. These data may be taken as indications that M. musculus is not a well adapted host for A. costaricensis, although susceptibility was apparently higher with "wild" populations of M. musculus as compared to Swiss strain.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Ciências Microbiológicas e Curso de Pós-Graduação em Biociências (Zoologia), PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: F T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graeff-Teixeira
mesh_terms: D000801:Angiostrongylus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology; D001938:Brazil; D002489:Central America; D005260:Female; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000401:mortality / Q000662:veterinary