Studies with Brugia pahangi 8. Infections in Macaca mulatta

Abstract

Five Macaca mulatta were each inoculated with 200 larvae of Brugia pahangi. One monkey showed no microfilariae and the other 4 only low and transient microfilaraemias. Another group of 5 monkeys were each given an original 200 larvae and 11 further infections with 50 larvae but no better microfilaraemias were obtained. These monkeys were killed between 176 and 185 days later and no adult worms could be found. A few adult worms were found in two further monkeys killed 60 days after infection.Brugia pahangi infects mammalian hosts of several orders but the only primate found naturally infected is Nycticebiis coucang (Laing et al., 1960, Ash and Riley, 1970). Edeson et al. (1960) tried to infect Macaca inis, M. nemestrina, M. mulatta and N. coucang but were only able to detect microfilariae in N. coucang. On the other hand, B. malayi (sub-periodic strain) infects primates much more readily (Laing et al., 1960) in nature. Fredericks and Ramachandran (1968) successfully infected 26 of 27 M. mulatta with B. malayi.