Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T04:35:33.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Entopolypoides macaci, a Babesia-like parasite in Cercopithecus monkeys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Frank Hawking
Frank Hawking
Affiliation:
Tulane University Delta Regional Primate Research Center, Covington, Louisiana 70433
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A description is given of a Babesia-like parasite found in the erythrocytes of two Cercopithecus pygerythrus monkeys probably from East Africa. Morphologically it seems identical with a parasite found by Mayer (1934) in Macaca irus monkeys from Java and named by him Entopolypoides macaci. On the other hand, the present African type differs from the Javan one in that it does not readily infect M. irus or M. mulatta monkeys; and it might well be named provisionally E. macaci (cercopitheci). Morphologically, the early forms are fine rings with a large vacuole but the more mature parasites form several fine long processes which are best seen under phase-contrast illumination. The cycle in the erythrocytes probably ends by division into four new parasites and it takes 3 days to quadruple the number. There is no synchronicity, such as occurs with malaria. The parasite was passed by syringe into Erythrocebus patas, Papio papio and Cercocebus galeritus monkeys in which it produced a light parasitaemia if they were intact, or an intense one (up to 70% erythrocytes parasited) if they were splenectomized. In both cases the bouts of parasitaemia are prolonged for weeks, and they may continue with relapses apparently for years. A light transient infection was produced in one splenectomized Macaca mulatta and in one out of two intact M. irus monkeys, but not in one M. arctoides (splenectomized), one Cebus albifrons, one C. apella, two Aotus trivirgatus and two Pan troglodytes (one splenectomized). Apparently the parasite readily infected African lower primates, hardly infected Asiatic ones, and did not infect American ones. Even in susceptible splenectomized monkeys, in which it produced prolonged intense parasitaemia, the parasite causes little pathogenic effect beyond a moderate anaemia. Attempts were made to transmit it through Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Dermacentor andersoni, Ornithodoros (sp.), Ornithonyssus bacoti and Aedes aegypti but they were unsuccessful. Probably the vector is an Ixodid tick. Chemotherapeutically the parasite was sensitive to a babesicidal compound, Imidocarb (3,3′-bis-(2 imidazolin-2yl) carbanilide) and to primaquine but not to chloroquine, pyrimethamine, pentamidine, Berenil or homidium.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , August 1972 , pp. 89 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bafort, J. M., Timperman, G., & Molyneux, D. H., (1970). Babesia hylomysci n.sp., a new Babesia from the Congo transmissible to mice. Annates de la Société beige de Médicine Tropicale 50, 301–18.Google ScholarPubMed
Fairbairn, H., (1948). The occurrence of a piroplasm, Entopolypoides macaci, in East African monkeys. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 42, 118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman-Muhsam, B., (1958). A note on the transmission of a Nuttallia of Meriones shawi by the tick Rhipicephalus secundus. Journal of Protozoology, 5, 225–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogstraal, H., & Theiler, G., (1959). Ticks (Ixodoidea, Ixodidae) parasitizing lower primates in Africa, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. Journal of Parasitology 45, 217–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joyner, L. P., Davies, S. F. M., & Kendall, S. B., (1963). Chemotherapy of Babesiasis. In Experimental Chemotherapy, vol. I (ed. Schnitzer, R. J. and Hawking, F.), pp. 603–24. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Krylov, M. V., (1964). Development of some piroplasms within the vertebrate hosts. Acta Protozoologica (Warszawa) 2, 307–20.Google Scholar
Levine, N. D., (1970). Taxonomy of the piroplasms. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 90, 2–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macfie, J. W., S. (1915). Babesiasis and trypanosomiasis at Accra, Gold Coast, West Africa. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 9, 457–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M., (1934). Ein neuer, eigenartiger Blutparasit des Affen (Entopolypoides macaci n.g. et n.sp.). Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie, Originale 131, 132–6.Google Scholar
Poisson, R., (1953). Sporozoaires incertains. Superfamille des Babesioidea nov. In Grassé, P. P. (ed.), Traité de Zoologie, vol. 1 (2), pp. 935–75. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Tsur, I., Hadani, A., & Pipano, E., (1960). Nuttallia danii n.sp.—A haemoprotozoon from the gerbil (Meriones tristrami shawi). Refuah Veterinarith 17, 244–236 (sic).Google Scholar
Wenyon, C. M., (1909). Report of travelling pathologist and protozoologist. Third Report Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, Khartoum 3, 121–68.Google Scholar