Effects of Solid and Soluble Diets upon Trichuris muris (Schrank, 1788) and DBA/2J Mice

Weanling mice were infected with Trichuris muris and maintained for 8 weeks on either a solid diet containing 24% protein or on liquid diets containing 4 or 8% protein. No significant difference in growth attributable to diet was evidenced but a highly significant difference caused by infection did occur and was most marked during weeks 5 to 7 in the mice fed the low-protein liquid diets. The hematocrit levels reflected only normal changes commensurate with the gradual maturation of the mice. Significantly higher levels of the plasma α2 and total globulins occurred in all of the infected mice during weeks 4 to 6. The number of mice that developed patent infections appeared not to have been influenced by diet. Significantly fewer male and female, and shorter female worms, were recovered from the mice fed the low-protein liquid diets than from those fed the 24% protein solid diet. Sex ratios of the worms were not affected by diet and were normal for the age of the infection. All 3 groups of infected mice ingested fewer calories, significantly so during weeks 4 and 5, than did the normal mice. Thus, in the course of the 8 weeks of the experiment Trichuris muris induced a state of anorexia in the host irrespective of the form and protein content of the diet.