Host genetics as a cause of overdispersion of parasites among hosts: how general a phenomenon?

In the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, the tapeworm Hymenolepis citelli occurs at low (2-3%) prevalence in the field. We found that mature infections (i.e., with egg production) developed in up to 100% of hosts. In the laboratory, a majority of hosts lost their infection by 28 days postintubation. In wild mice infected in the laboratory and returned to the field, infections were more prolonged, with half of the mice still infected at 100 days postintubation. A majority of previously infected hosts resisted challenge infection. Our introduction of laboratory-infected mice into a natural population of hosts appeared to cause infections among previously uninfected mice, leading to an increase in the prevalence of tapeworm infection among mice not intubated. Although genetically based expulsion of tapeworms before maturity is important in causing low prevalence in a similar host-parasite system, such resistance cannot explain low prevalence in the present system. It appears that both heterogeneous distribution and rarity of intermediate hosts as well as short parasite lifespan contribute to low prevalence and overdispersion. Host-parasite dynamics of 2 very similar systems appear to differ markedly.