Schistosoma mansoni: infecção experimental de camundongos através da orelha e quantificação do parasitismo na pele

A method is presented to recover schistosomula from the skin of ear infected mice. About 80% of the cercariae applied to the ear were able to penetrate the mouse skin and 30% of them were recovered from the portal system as adult worms. The best recovery of larvae from the ear occurred in the two days that follow the penetration. From the 3rd day on, parasites were recovered both from skin and lungs and on the 4th day they were already found mainly in the lungs. From 73 to 80% of the parasites eventually found in the portal system can be recovered as schistosomula from the skin on tjhe 2nd day of infection. The use of the mouse ears is suggested for the parasitolqgical analysis of the initial events of the S. mansoni infection both in normal and in immune animals, for they are very convenient to the cercarial access and to the use of methods of study of migration and recuperation of the larvae.