Experimental transmission of Trichinella spiralis via marine amphipods

Abstract

Groups of amphipods (Anonyx laticoxa and A. affinis) from the Bering Sea were fed the flesh of black bears, Ursus americanus, containing encysted larvae of Trichinella spiralis of Alaskan polar bear (U. maritimus) and brown bear (U. arctos) origin. In the expelled ingesta of 7000 amphipods that had fed for 1 hour were found 17 intact, excysted larvae of T. spiralis. Another group of 8500 that had fed for 20 minutes was, in turn, fed to two Trichinella-free dogs, one of which acquired an infection of about one larva per gram of skeletal muscle.