The age and sex of the host as factors affecting the host–parasite relationship of the third-stage larva of Amplicaecum robertsi Sprent & Mines, 1960, in the laboratory mouse

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Abstract
There was no difference between the worm burdens or the lengths of the worms recovered from sexually immature male and female mice infected with Amplicaecum robertsi.In mice older than 70 days there were fewer larvae recovered from the female than the male host. The larvae were also longer in the male than in the female mouse.The suckling mouse harboured fewer larvae than the weanling; the susceptibility of the mouse continued to increase with increasing age until the one-hundredth day in the males and the seventy-fifth day in the females. In animals older than this an age resistance was apparent. It is suggested that the much lower susceptibility of the suckling mouse is due to the small gut and villi size reducing the establishment of the larvae.Worm growth also varied with host age, the longest larvae being recovered from the suckling mice and successively smaller worms from each older age group up to the seventy-fifth day, beyond which there was no significant change in worm growth with age of the host. There was no difference between the worm burdens and the lengths of the worms recovered from 90-day-old mice. The injection of testosterone had little or no effect on the host–parasite relationship of gonad-ectomized animals. Larvae from gonadectomized mice were significantly shorter than those from the intact hosts.

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