Experimental disseminated strongyloidiasis in Erythrocebus patas. I. Pathology.

Fatal disseminated disease was induced in ten patas monkeys infected with two Southeast Asian strains of Strongyloides stercoralis. While some animals died within 6 weeks after infection, others controlled their infections until placed on high doses of corticosteroids. Larvae were first noted in the stools 11-20 days after transcutaneous exposure to filariform larvae. Daily larval counts tended to increase as the infections progressed, but the number of larvae in the stool was not predictive of whether a monkey would control his infection or succumb to fatal disease. Hyperinfection was confirmed in the six monkeys in which counts were made of the adult female parasites in the duodenum at postmortem, as well as by pathologic findings in all animals. Clinical signs of disease were vague until dyspnea induced by terminal pulmonary hemorrhage occurred. Eosinophilia and/or basophilia were noted intermittently in some infections. Severe necrotizing duodenitis, colitis, and pulmonary hemorrhage were the most conspicuous postmortem findings. Hyperinfection has been predictably induced in a cercopithecoid monkey for the first time; a species which may lend itself to further investigations into the pathogenesis of disseminated strongyloidiasis .