Abstract
The transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas, the causative organism of Chagas Disease, is usually accomplished through the agency of the reduviid bug, Panstrongylus megistus Burm. (Triatoma megista). Craig and Faust 1 list several other arthropods as vectors of the trypanosome under experimental conditions including several species of Ixodoidea namely, Amblyomma cajennense (Fabr.), Rhipicephalus sanguineus Latr., and Ornithodoros moubata Murray. In addition Brumpt has shown the argasine tick, Ornithodoros savignyi (Audouin) capable of transmitting the organism in the laboratory.
The following deals with the experimental infection of the tick, Ornithodoros turicata (Duges) with Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas and subsequent transmission of this species of trypanosome to normal white mice.
The outline of the experiment is as follows:
Data Concerning Ticks Used. Thirty clean larval ticks, Ornithodoros turicata (Duges) reared in the laboratory from a clean adult female tick taken in Texas, 1937.
Procedure. One white mouse, previously infected by means of an intraperitoneal inoculation of one cubic centimeter sterile saline to which was added a few droplets of fecal material taken from infective cone-nose bugs of the species Triatoma protracta Uhl.,∗ was placed in a special wire feeding cage and the ticks applied to the smooth skin of the abdomen of the animal.
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