STUDIES ON SUSCEPTIBILITY OF SEVEN LABORATORY ANIMALS TO LEISHMANIA GERBILLI WANG, QU & GUAN 1964
七种实验动物对沙鼠利什曼原虫感受性的研究

Promastigotes of Leishmania gerbilli were inoculated subcutaneously into several strains of inbred mice. The BALB/c strain was highly susceptible and local swelling was developed at the site of injection, in which histiocytes usually contained numerous parasites. Only a few mice were cured spontaneously in 120 days. Mice of CFW usually cured spontaneously in 4 months after inoculation while C57 BL strain was resistant. In the ear tissue of Meriones unguiculata, the leishmania infection might last one year. The testes of Chinese hamster Cricetulus barabensis was the most favourable site for L. gerbilli. Infected testes was swollen and contained numerous parasites. However, during the observation period of 15 months, the testes in one hamster was reduced in size and its histologic section showed that the testes membrane was hyalin-degenerated and severe necrosis developed at the central area of testes. Another hamster developed metastatic lesion on the foot without ulcer. No experimental animals died and no leishmania were found in their viscera during the course of the infection. The host-specificity of L. gerbilli rather strict and narrow, its pathogenicity to both natural host and experimental animal was light and non-infective to human. It could be suggested that natural parasitic history of L. gerbilli was longer than other mammal leishmania in the Old World.