Preliminary study on oral transmission of plasmodium falciparum

ABSTRACT

In order to assess the possibility of the oral transmission of human Plasmodium falciparum to animals, 40 male Swiss albino mice were orally inoculated with human blood parasitized with Plasmodium falciparum [infected group] and another 12 mice were inoculated with non-infected human blood [control group]. Ten infected mice and three non-infected control ones were sacrificed weekly at first, second, third and fourth week from the beginning of infection. It was observed that out of 40 infected mice, 18 acquired malaria as demonstrated by the observation of parasites in their blood and all control mice were negative for malaria parasite. So, it can be concluded that human Plasmodium falciparum may be transmitted to mice by the ingestion of infected blood