CALCA and infection: Considering the crucial role of splenic stress hematopoiesis in the control of Plasmodium infection [16, 28] and anemia [21, 25, 26, 38], the effect of calcitonin on splenic hematopoietic parameters was investigated early (day 5 after infection), at peak parasitemia (day 8), and following resolution of peak infection (day 10).