Carbohydrate reserves and infectivity in Trichinella spiralis isolated from carrion

Abstract

SUMMARYTrichinous mice were killed and their carcasses maintained at room temperature or subzero temperatures for varying lengths of time. Some worm parameters were measured after direct isolation from carcasses while others were measured following passage through a second round of hosts. Glycogen and trehalose levels in infective 1st-stage larvae (L1) isolated directly from carcasses maintained at room temperature were significantly less than controls (day 0) after day 4 post-kill (p.k.). By day 21 p.k. among L1 isolated directly from mouse carcasses those observed coiled or moving had decreased by around 20% compared to day 0 p.k. The percentage of L1 isolated from carcasses on several days p.k., used to infect mice and recovered as pre-adult worms declined significantly after they had remained in carcasses for 14 days. Only 2·6% of muscle larvae isolated from carcasses on day 21 p.k. and used to infect mice were recoverable as pre-adults. Pre-adult worms raised in mice infected with larvae from day 7 carcasses had about 50% less glycogen than worms raised in mice infected with larvae isolated from fresh carcasses (day 0 p.k.). The fecundity in vitro of adult worms isolated from mice on day 7 following infection with infective L1 larvae maintained in carcasses held at room temperature for 0–16 days declined only when adult worms developed from larvae recovered from carcasses at 3 days following host death. Following 24 h at temperatures below freezing, infectivity of L1 larvae isolated from frozen carcasses was reduced by 97%. Carbohydrate levels remained high in larvae from carcasses frozen for up to 4 days.