Role of Ectoparasites in Bartonella Infection of Albino Rats.

Abstract

The importance of the albino rat as an experimental animal makes Bartonella infections a serious problem in experimental medicine. In addition, the similarity of the Bartonella infection of rats to the human infection, Oroya Fever, suggests the possibility that the 2 diseases may have a number of points in common, particularly as to modes of transmission. This report deals with the latter problem.

Lauda 1 showed that the anemia resulting from splenectomy of albino rats was transmissible by injection of liver emulsion, although at that time he was unaware of the presence of Bartonella organisms in the infected animals. Later, Haam, Lauda and Sorge 2 discovered that uninfected rats might become infected after being kept in cages with animals that were known to be infected.

We have confirmed the results of Lauda as to the transmission of the infection by injection of liver emulsion from infected rats into normal ones, and have even transmitted the disease by the injection of less than one drop of blood from a Bartonella infected animal into a normal one. As normal controls we have used rats from the Wistar Institute strain. Thus far we have splenectomized 34 of these animals varying in age from 3 weeks to 15 months and have never observed any significant anemia. Furthermore, the spleen weight-body weight ratio of these has averaged approximately 0.25%, whereas the average in the case of over 75 Bartonella-infected animals is 0.75%.