The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
It may be of interest to note that Gonder[98] (1911) has shown
that a strain of _T. lewisi_ resistant to arsenophenylglycin loses
its resistance after passage through the rat-louse, _Hæmatopinus
spinulosus_. These experiments suggest that physiological “acquired
characters” may be lost by passage through an invertebrate host.
[98] _Centralbl. f. Bakt._, Orig., lxi, p. 102.
*Trypanosoma brucei*, Plimmer and Bradford, 1899.
_Trypanosoma brucei_ was discovered by Sir D. Bruce in 1894 in cattle
in Zululand and was named _T. brucei_ by Plimmer and Bradford in 1899
in honour of its discoverer. This trypanosome is of considerable
economic importance, as it is responsible for the fatal tsetse fly
disease, or “nagana,” in cattle, horses and dogs. The disease is widely
distributed in Africa and is transmitted from host to host by the
tsetse, _Glossina morsitans_, and other species of _Glossina_. The
virus is maintained in nature in certain big game, such as wildebeest,
bushbuck and koodoo, which thus act as living reservoirs of disease
from which the tsetse may become infected. These reservoir hosts are
not injured, apparently, by the presence of the parasites.
_T. brucei_ is rapidly fatal to the small laboratory animals, such as
rats and mice. Horses, asses and dogs practically always succumb to its
attacks, while a very small number of cattle recover from “nagana.” The
disease is characterized by fever, destruction of red blood corpuscles,
severe emaciation and by an infiltration of coagulated lymph in the
subcutaneous tissue of the neck, abdomen and extremities giving a
swollen appearance thereto. The natural reservoirs in which _T.
brucei_ has been long acclimatized are unaffected by the trypanosomes,
while the newer hosts, such as imported cattle in Africa, are rapidly
destroyed by their action.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--_Trypanosoma brucei._ × 2,000. (After Laveran
and Mesnil.)]
The general morphology and life history in the vertebrate host is that
of a typical trypanosome (fig. 40). Its length is from 12 µ to 35 µ,
its breadth from 1·5 µ to 4 µ. Multiplication by longitudinal division
proceeds in the peripheral blood (fig. 26), while latent, leishmaniform
bodies are produced in the internal organs.
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