The action of Trichinella spiralis infections in markedly lowering protein digestion in rats is confined to a period 4 to 12 days afier infection. Minor disturbances in protein digestion occurring about 30 days after infection may have been due to adult females leaving the host.
Over the first 12 days of infection the protein digestion was lowered (calculated as the summation of the percentage fall for each of the first 3 periods) approximately 1% for each 100 infective larvae fed. The degree of digestive disorder seemed unrelated to the number of larvae finally recovered from the hosts' tissues.
Inorganic P excretion fell to a very low level 4 to 8 days after infection. Twenty-four days later the rate of excretion rose, the maximum being 2 or 3 times the normal level.
Ca assimilation fell to a very low point during the second period of infection, falling again after a further 9 periods.
As indicated by weight losses the most marked period of the disease occurred from the 8th to the 11th period after infection.