Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
In lactating rats examined 3 weeks post infection, adult Nippostrongylus brasiliensis were found in the duodenum close to the pylorus. Worms migrated from the predilection site, shown by Brambell (1965) and Alphey (1970) to be approximately 25% down the intestine, during the second week of infection. A similar migration took place in neonatally infected rats.
It was suggested that the migration was an active response to immunological damage. It could be prevented by early betamethasone treatment but only modified by treatment given late in infection.