Adaptation of a Nigerian strain of Plasmodium falciparum to Panamanian Aotus trivirgatus.

A patent infection (more than 190 days duration) with Plasmodium falciparum, obtained directly from a patient who had been exposed to malaria in Nigeria, was established in a splenectomized Panamanian owl monkey, Aotus trivirgatus griseimembra. Subinoculations from the original monkey recipient into one splenectomized and two normal A. t. griseimembra produced primary patient parasitemias of 18-54 days duration. These results represent the first successful adaptation of P. falciparum from man to a monkey of Panamanian origin.