Dynamics of gastropod infection by first-stage larvae of protostrongylid nematodes--a model.

For the description of the dynamics of snail infection by the 1st-stage larvae of protostrongylid nematodes, Skorping (1988) used the miracidia-snail model (Anderson, 1978). Here it is shown that, in contrast to miracidia, in protostrongylids the instantaneous rate of infection, alpha, is strongly dependent on the experimental design (factors like host size and size of the experimental arena). With respect to this, Anderson's model is modified by incorporation of the experimental design. The parameter alpha in its new sense as the rate of penetration (probability that the infective larva will penetrate into the host during a time unit) is shown to remain dependent, although much less so, on the experimental design. Only the inclusion of the assumed effect of mucus, which decreases the rate of penetration, yields a parameter alpha 0 (the initial rate of penetration), which is completely independent of the design of the experiment, is species-specific, and also gives the best fit to the empirical data. As the above-mentioned factors can strongly influence the value of the instantaneous rate of infection in the laboratory experiments, alpha 0 is more suitable as a measure of either the larval infectivity for the snail or snail susceptibility to infection by the protostrongylid larvae.