Effects of infective stage density, host density and surface area available for transmission on the rate of transmission of the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus were investigated in a controlled environment where naive CD1 outbred mice were naturally infected. Within a range of densities of infective larvae (500-6000/cage), randomly spread on damp peat moss, a linear increase was observed in the mean number of fourth stage larvae embedded in the intestinal mucosa per host. As host density increased (1-6 mice/cage), but exposure dose held constant (8000L$ sb3$), the mean number of L$ sb4$ recovered per mouse decreased at a faster rate than expected assuming a constant per capita rate of transmission. In an attempt to interpret the experimental data, mathematical models were generated. Although the inclusion of a death rate of infective larvae dependent on mouse density did improve the fit of the mathematical model based on a constant per capita rate of transmission, the best fit was provided by a model assuming a per capita rate of transmission dependent on mouse density. An independent experiment exploring the impact of surface area available for transmission on the relationship between host density and the rate of infection confirmed the adequacy of the mouse density-dependent per capita rate of transmission hypothesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59276 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Gascon, Lise Hélène |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Institute of Parasitology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001071064, proquestno: AAIMM63477, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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