Developmental study of Taenia mustelae in the intermediate and definitive hosts, with a note on the life cycle of T. mustelae in Hokkaido, Japan.

The gray red-backed vole Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae and laboratory mice were fed eggs of Taenia mustelae via a stomach tube. Fully developed metacestodes were recovered from the voles fed the eggs at 25 days postinfection; voles were considered to be more suitable intermediate hosts for T. mustelae than laboratory mice. The prepatent period for the metacestodes from voles was shorter (16 days) in the mink than previously reported. A field survey was performed on hepatic cestodes of small mammals in Hokkaido, Japan in August 1993. We found T. mustelae metacestodes from C. rufocanus bedfordiae, representing a new host record.