Comparative susceptibility to Schistosoma mansoni of the squirrel monkey, the slow loris and the tree shrew

Abstract

After exposure to cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni it was found that a New World monkey ( Saimiri sciurea—the squirrel monkey) was susceptible to infection, a prosimian primate ( Nycticebus coucang—the slow loris) was relatively resistant, and a “pre-primate” ( Tupaia glis—the tree shrew) was virtually insusceptible to infection. On the basis of this and other studies with primates, it appears that the lower primates are less susceptible to infection with S. mansoni than the higher primates.