CHAPTER XXII 



EXPERIMENTAL AMCEBIASIS IN KITTENS 



By 



Charles Rees 

 U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry 



In the study of any human disease the discovery of a susceptible 

 laboratory animal marks an important step forward because such 

 a discovery makes possible the general application of experimental 

 methods. Experimental work is still further facilitated when the 

 organism known to be the etiological agent may be grown in 

 culture. For human amoebiasis Hlava (1887) found the kitten 

 susceptible but thirty-eight years elapsed until Boeck and Drbohlav 

 (1925) discovered a practicable method of cultivating the patho- 

 genic amoebcie. From fifty to seventy-five per cent of kittens be- 

 tween the age of weaning and the attainment of a weight of 600 

 to 700 grams become positive when injected rectally with fecal 

 material or culture fluid containing the parasites. Infection of 

 kittens also results from ingestion of cysts as in man. Also, as in 

 man, secondary lesions develop in the liver. The kitten harbors 

 no naturally occurring Endarnccba so that fecal diagnosis is simpli- 

 fied. It would appear, therefore, that the experimental study of 

 this important disease may proceed at a rapid rate. It will be 

 shown in the following paragraphs, however, that progress is still 

 retarded by problems peculiar to the life of the kitten and the in- 

 troduction of the amoebai into them. 



RESUME OF EXPERIMENTAL WORK 



Early workers did not all agree that the amoebae which were 

 adequately described by Loesch (1875) really produced the lesions. 

 This disagreement was due in part to the fact that intestinal bac- 

 teria, certain species of which produce dysentery, were thought 

 to be involved in all cases. Kartulis (1890) demonstrated that the 



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