Hymenolepis diminuta: the effect of cold temperature exposure on infections in mice.

Hymenolepis diminuta grown in mice maintained at 5 degrees C were significantly larger and markedly more developed than those grown simultaneously in control mice maintained at 21 degrees C. In mice maintained at 5 degrees C, the incidence of infection and the number of worms recovered per host were higher than in the mice kept at 21 degrees C. Regardless of the temperature of the hosts' external environment, primary infections were always expelled before Day 13 postinfection and secondary (challenge) infections were invariably lost before Day 7.