Infection of Aotus azarae boliviensis monkeys with different strains of Plasmodium falciparum.

Eleven strains of Plasmodium falciparum from Asia, Africa, and Central America were inoculated into a total of 58 splenectomized Aotus azarae boliviensis monkeys. Eight of the strains produced high-level parasitemias, whereas 3 (2 from Honduras and 1 from Zaire) produced only low-level parasitemias. Mosquito infections were only obtained during the first 2 linear passages of the Santa Lucia strain from El Salvador. The results indicate that this species of Aotus monkey is highly susceptible to infection with strains of P. falciparum from different geographic areas, and therefore may be useful for a number of chemotherapeutic or immunologic studies. Its usefulness for mosquito infection studies is very limited.