The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
Bruce and colleagues[99] have quite recently (June, 1914) described
the development of a Zululand strain of _T. brucei_ in _G. morsitans_.
The tsetse flies were bred out in Nyasaland. In vertebrate blood
the _brucei_ strain was polymorphic. The development was like that
found for _T. gambiense_ in _G. palpalis_ (fig. 30), and by Bruce
and colleagues for _T. rhodesiense_ in _G. morsitans_ in Nyasaland.
Long trypanosomes were found in the proventriculus of the tsetse.
Crithidial, rounded or encysted, and immature “blood forms” occurred in
the salivary glands; and finally infective, stumpy, “blood forms” were
differentiated in the salivary glands. The period of development of _T.
brucei_ in _G. morsitans_ takes about three weeks, and then the fly
becomes infective. Bruce believes that _T. rhodesiense_ of Nyasaland
and _T. brucei_ of Zululand are the same, their cycles of development
in _G. morsitans_ being “marvellously alike.” (But see Laveran, p. 80.)
[99] _Proc. Roy. Soc._, B, lxxxvii, p. 526.
_T. brucei_ has been cultivated with difficulty by Novy and MacNeal,
using blood agar. The best treatment for nagana is arsenic in some form.
It is probable that more than one trypanosome has been confused under
the name _T. brucei_, more especially as the occurrence of many species
of trypanosomes in various animals in Africa was not suspected
until comparatively recent times. It has been shown by Stephens and
Blacklock (1913) that the original Zululand strain of _T. brucei_
was monomorphic, while the organism sent from Uganda, and at the
time believed by Bruce to be the same as the Zululand trypanosome,
has been found to be polymorphic, with morphological resemblances
to _T. rhodesiense_. Stephens and Blacklock[100] have suggested the
name _T. ugandæ_ for the polymorphic trypanosome, which, however, has
marked resemblances with *Trypanosoma pecaudi*, and they are, perhaps,
identical. _T. pecaudi_ was the name given by Laveran[101] in 1907 to
the causal agent of “baleri” in equines and sheep in the French Sudan.
_T. pecaudi_, which is dimorphic, is widely distributed in Africa.
An extremely small number of both _T. pecaudi_ and _T. ugandæ_ have
been shown to possess posterior nuclei. _T. pecaudi_ is transmitted by
various species of _Glossina_, and is said to develop in the gut and
proboscis of the fly.
[100] _Proc. Roy. Soc._, B, lxxxvi, p. 187.
[101] _C.R. Acad. Sci._, cxliv, p. 243.
On the other hand, Bruce and colleagues (1914), examining a strain sent
from Zululand in 1913, state that _T. brucei_ is polymorphic. Bruce
(1914) suggests that passage through laboratory hosts has influenced
and altered the morphology of the parasite.
*Trypanosoma evansi*, Steel, 1885.
Syn.: _Spirochæta evansi_, Steel, 1885; _Hæmatomonas evansi_,
Crookshank, 1886; _Trichomonas evansi_, Crookshank, 1886.
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