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Acquired resistance to Onchocerca lienalis infections in Simulium ornatum Meigen and Simulium lineatum Meigen following passive transfer of haemolymph from previously infected simuliids (Diptera, Simuliidae)

SUMMARY This study describes experiments which demonstrate the presence of a parasite-induced or derived factor in the haemocoel of Onchocerca lienalis-infected simuliids. Haemolymph, when transferred from previously infected donor flies to previously untreated recipient flies, using fine glass needles, confers protection against a subsequent challenge to the recipients. In three trials using Simulium ornatum sl. or S. linealum, significant levels of protection in ‘immunized’ compared to ‘challenge control’ groups were achieved (84% and 81% with S. ornatum sl. and 85% with S. lineaturm). This is despite the fact that the worm burdens of the infected donor groups in the three trials were very different (means of 33·1 and 3·4 larvae/fly with S. ornatum sl. and 1·6 larvae/fly with S. linealum). The use of sham-operated and bentonite-inoculated control groups demonstrate that this effect is not merely a non-specific reaction to trauma, but is probably parasitic in its derivation. The use of double infections separated by 4 days shows that the donor flies have themselves probably acquired resistance to O. lienalis. Frequency distributions of O. lienalis burdens in individual flies show that there is a shift froni a normal to a skew distribution when comparing ‘challenge control’ flies with ‘immunized’. This possible acquired resistance could have important implications in the transmission of forest and savanna human onchocerciasis by the Simulium damnosum complex.