title: [Study on the infectivity of Angiostronglus cantonensis in the epidemic foci].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the degrees on the epidemic foci of Angiostronglus cantonensis and to explore the measurement methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  Snails (Pila gigas) were collected from the spots of Wenzhou, Cangnan, Yongjia, Yueqing in Zhejiang province and Minhou, Changle, Ningde in Fujian province. The snails were examined microscopically in order to calculate their infection rates and the average worm number in the positive snails, then taking the product of multiplication of both values as infestation index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The infection rates of the epidemic foci were 10.59% (9/85), 60.74% (181/298), 34.96% (79/226), 32.90% (76/231), 57.50% (184/320), 40.00% (82/205), 17.65% (12/68) and the rates of infectivity were 6.57, 183.54, 121.73, 93.45, 276.36, 76.08, 12.65, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The epidemic foci were divided into five ranks (super, high, mid-range, low and non-epidemic foci) according to the value of infestation index which ranked from > 75, 30-75, 5-29, < 5 to 0.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou 325035, China.
authors.forename: Hui-Cong
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: You-Song
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qin-Yun
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Zhuge
authors.forename: Xue-Lian
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Chang-Wang
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000801:Angiostrongylus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D012908:Snails / Q000469:parasitology*; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*