TITLE:
Schistosoma mansoni Infection in Holochilus sciureus Shows Sex-Related Differences in Parasitological Patterns
AUTHORS:
Guilherme Silva Miranda, João Gustavo Mendes Rodrigues, Maria Gabriela Sampaio Lira, Ranielly Araújo Nogueira, Gleycka Cristine Carvalho Gomes, Nêuton Silva-Souza
KEYWORDS:
Biological Model, Females, Males, Schistosomiasis, Wild Reservoir
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.9 No.2,
March
29,
2019
ABSTRACT: Due to the different parasitological patterns found
between sexes in human populations and in different biological models during Schistosoma mansoni infection, we proposed to investigate such differences
using Holochilus sciureus rodent, besides confirming whether this rodent is suitable
for experimental infections. In this sense, males and females of H. sciureus were infected with 200 cercariae from a human strain of S. mansoni. The number of
eggs per gram of feces (epg) and the worms were quantified, besides
histopathological analysis. Thus, it was shown that females have fewer epg, as
well as a longer prepatent period. On the other hand, males had a lower
recovery rate of adult worms. The histopathological analysis did not show
differences between the sexes. Thus, we suggest that infection in H. sciureus females provides a favorable environment for the development of adult worms,
despite impairing the parasite fecundity. In addition, H. sciureus may be an excellent biological model for S. mansoni experimental
infections.