The role of the Tasmanian devil in the epizootiology of ovine cysticercosis and echinococcosis.

Tasmanian devils were fed infective cystic material of Taenia ovis, T. hydatigena and Echinococcus granulosus and later killed and examined for adult tapeworms. No infections with T. ovis were found after feeding 23 cysts to 8 devils. T. hydatigena were recovered from 5 to 41 devils and 10 worms established after feeding 417 cysticerci. No E. granulosus were recovered from any of 3 devils. Specimens of T. hydatigena appeared to develop as well in devils as in dogs. From these and previous results devils could be successful hosts to T. hydatigena and T. ovis. A survey of 320 devils failed to detect any natural infections with any of these 3 species.