Trichomoniasis in Kittens.

Abstract

Da Cunha and Muniz 1 in South America have reported the finding in a cat of a flagellate to which they have given the name, Trichomonas felis. Brumpt 2 later records Trichomonas in two kittens in Paris. One of these kittens had been previously infected experimentally with human feces containing Endamoeba dysenteriae, and it therefore is possible that this Trichomonas had been derived from the human source. Brumpt did not state definitely whether opportunity of laboratory transmission was afforded the second kitten. He transferred these flagellates to other kittens, and accepted the name Trichomonas felis for them, instead of considering the possibility that the infections might have been derived from other animals, supporting his claim primarily on the basis of the negative transmission results of Hogue 3 , who had been unsuccessful in establishing Trichomonas hominis from man in kittens.

During the spring and summer of 1926, while engaged in a study of experimental amoebiasis in kittens, the writer found 9 kittens, purchased from the streets of Peking, which showed natural infections of Trichomonas. This Trichomonas, as studied in saline and iodine-eosin smears, did not differ morphologically from the Trichomonas described by Brumpt, from kittens, nor from the common Trichomonas hominis, from man. The flagellar count of the majority of the specimens was four. The infected kittens showed a diarrhea consisting of a yellowish-brown stool, and in two instances a dysentery. These conditions were uncomplicated, for the most part, by other protozoan or pathogenic bacterial infections, and the kittens gradually wasted, and died within a week of the time when the infection was detected.