Abstract
Selected cercaria-related conditions were tested for their influence on penetration and maturation of Schistosoma mansoni in mice: cercarial postemergence age; sex; miracidial ancestry in terms of numbers of larvae used at snail exposures; maintenance temperature of snails during cercarial development; duration of patency of snail infections; and purpurin staining of cercarial preacetabular glands. Criteria devised for assessing influence were the maximal, minimal, and average penetration and worm burdens per 50-cercaria test sample (or per mouse), percentage maturation of adult schistosomes per sample, percentage of samples in which at least 45 of the 50 cercariae penetrated, and variability of the samples for each condition tested. The most sensitive criteria were the percentage of samples with a high number of penetrants, average and minimal penetration per sample, and variability among samples. All conditions were influential by some criteria except the potential sex of the cercariae. Preacetabular gland staining and patency of the snail infections affected both penetration and maturation by all the criteria; postemergence age and developmental temperature influenced both by all criteria except maximum penetration per 50-cercaria sample.
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