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. 1994 Dec 1;35(4):395–400. doi: 10.1186/BF03548314

Experimental Infection of Danish Landrace/Yorkshire Crossbred Pigs with Schistosoma japonicum from the People’s Republic of China

Eksperimentel infektion af Dansk Landrace/Yorkshire grise med Schistosoma japonicum fra den Kinesiske Folkerepublik

A L Willingham 112,212,✉, M V Johansen 212, B J Vennervald 212, N Ø Christensen 212, P Nansen 112
PMCID: PMC8101416  PMID: 7676923

Abstract

This study was undertaken to assess the suitability of Danish Landrace/Yorkshire (L/Y) crossbred pigs as experimental hosts of a Chinese mainland strain of Schistosoma japonicum. Pigs were exposed to 200, 500 or 1000 cercariae and parasite burdens were determined by perfusion after either 8 or 11 weeks. All pigs became infected with onset of faecal egg excretion 6 to 7 weeks following exposure to cercariae. The pattern of faecal egg excretion differed markedly among the individual animals. Gross hepatic pathological lesions of varying degrees were noted in all of the pigs. Schistosome worm recoveries ranged from 1.5–23.4% of the cercarial exposure dose. Most schistosome eggs recovered from the tissues, expressed as eggs/g tissue, were found in the rectum (91%), caecum (3.1%) and liver (5.1%). The results show that Danish L/Y pigs may serve as appropriate experimental final hosts of the Chinese mainland strain of S. japonicum.

Keywords: Animal model, population biology, zoonosis

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Susanne Kronborg, Rasmus Turin, Pernille L. Strøm, Rasmus Nielsen, Niels Midtgaard, Annette Pedersen and Dr. Torsten Møller for technical assistance, and also to the staff of Sjaelland III pig station for animal care. The participation of Dr. Willingham was made possible by a graduate research grant from the Danish/American Fulbright Commission.

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