Statistical analyses were restricted to sub-adult and adult animals as only 3 pubescent shrews were caught. Ordinal logistic regression examined whether bone marrow activity, lymphatic follicle activity (primary/secondary follicles, presence and degree of follicular depletion) in the spleen and pancreas of Aselli and severity of inflammatory infiltration in the liver (mild, moderate or severe) varied with age class or sex. Sex and age category were entered simultaneously as independent variables into models for each dependent variable listed above, and the significance of both terms assessed using Wald tests. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to test for differences in helminth abundances between sub-adult and adult shrews.