The Cultivation of Trichinella spiralis in Vitro *

Abstract

Summary Although the level of development encountered in the normal environment of suitable hosts was not attained in culture, the present findings indicate that Trichinella spiralis can be cultivated from the larval to the developing adult stage of sexual differentiation in culture media containing 50% chick embryo extract (CEE50) in chicken, ox (ultrafiltrate), rat, or rabbit serum, and CEE50 without serum. Many of the worms, both females and males, did not complete their molts so that they lay retracted within at least four distinct sheaths. If each cuticular sheath indicates one molt, this finding indicates that at least 4 molts are characteristic of both females and males. The worms decreased, rather than increased, in size during cultivation.