Use of L4 larvae of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis for the in vivo screening of anthelmintic drugs.

Five groups of Wistar rats were subcutaneously infected with 5,000 L3 stage larvae of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Four groups were dosed orally with 5, 10, 15, and 20 mg/kg body weight of albendazole at 5 h postinfection, and one group served as an untreated control. The animals were euthanized and the intestines were dissected out 72 h postinfection and were incubated on a Baermann's apparatus to recover L4 stage larvae. No larvae were recovered from the 20 mg/kg albendazole-treated group, and means of 15, 33, and 175 L4 larvae were recovered from the 15, 10, and 5 mg/kg albendazole-treated groups, respectively. Levamisole and fenbendazole were also tested using the same procedure. Means of 100 and 1,887 L4 larvae were obtained from the 50 and 10 mg/kg of levamisole-treated groups respectively; while, 191 and 583 L4 larvae were recovered from rats treated with 50 and 10 mg/kg of fenbendazole, respectively. These results indicate that the L4 stage of N. brasiliensis could be useful for in vivo screening of new nematocide drugs.