Characteristics of the Population Available for Bioassay of Anthelmintics in Nippostrongylus muris Infection in Albino Rats

Abstract

The growing need for a more accurate method of assaying anthelmintics has suggested the use of Nippostrongylus muris infection in standard albino rats as a source of test material. Although it has been used in many of the recent quantitative experiments in immunity and resistance and once in analyzing anthelmintics (Schwartz and Porter, 1937), no experiments designed to discover how the worms varied from one host to another have been reported. Since such knowledge is a prerequisite to accurate statistical analysis of the proposed type of anthelmintic tests, the present experiments are reported to fill this lacuna and to suggest methods of stabilizing the technic.