Interaction of Nematospiroides dubius and influenza virus in mice

Abstract

The response of mice infected with Nematospiroides dubius to influenza A 2 virus was studied in a series of four experiments. Groups of mice, given 50–1000 N. dubius larvae, subsequently were exposed to virus and killed for examination. The amount of virus present in lungs, hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody titers to influenza, and numbers of adult N. dubius present were determined. Significantly higher antibody titers were found in nonparasitized controls than in parasitized mice in all experiments. These differences were most apparent in mice killed 21 days after exposure to virus. The greatest reductions in HI titers were observed in mice given 1000 larvae although mice that received fewer larvae usually had significantly lower titers than nonparasitized controls. The titers of virus present in the lungs of parasitized mice 2 days after exposure tended to be lower than in nonparasitized controls.