Summary

The effect of two different compounded diets on experimentally induced Endamoeba histolytica infection in two hosts, the rat and the guinea pig, has been studied and the results reported here.

When the guinea pigs were maintained on the modified guinea pig (MGP) diet, almost 100 per cent of the animals died of the infection with a mean day of death of 8.4 days, and an average degree of infection of 3.9 out of a possible 4.0. When the rat breeder diet was fed to the guinea pigs only 78 per cent of the animals died of the infection with the mean day of death of 14.8 days and an average degree of infection of 3.3. The differences produced by the two diets were statistically significant.

In rats both diets produced a high incidence of infection and a high average degree of infection.

The data presented here, along with the work already reported from our laboratory, add further evidence to that reported by others, that diet influences the course of amebic infection in rats and guinea pigs.