THE TRICHOMONADS 



101 



Stabler and Mellentin (1953) recommended 

 7 daily doses of 28 mg/kg for homing pi- 

 geons and 45 mg/kg for commercial birds. 

 This treatment cures both acute cases and 

 carriers. Stabler, Schmittner and Harman 

 (1958) used 6. 3 g enheptin soluble per gal- 

 lon of drinking water for 7 to 14 days in 

 non-breeding pigeons. The birds consumed 

 9 to 27 mg of the drug per day--operation 

 of the peck order may have cut down water 

 consumption by some birds--and 53 of 61 

 infected birds were freed of their infec- 

 tions. Zwart (1959) obtained promising 

 results with 0. 125% enheptin in the drink- 

 ing water of a Dutch aviary where the in- 

 fection had been found in zebra finches 

 and an orange-checked waxbill. 



Control : Control of trichomonosis 

 in pigeons depends upon elimination of the 

 infection from the adults by drug treat- 

 ment. Prevention in turkeys and chickens 

 is based upon preventing wild pigeons and 

 doves from drinking from their watering 

 places. 



TRICHOMONAS GALLINARUM 

 MARTIN AND ROBERTSON, 1911 



Synonym : Trichomonas pullorum. 



Disease : None . 



Hosts : Chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, 

 and possibly other gallinaceous birds such 

 as the quail, pheasant and chukar par- 

 tridge. Diamond (1957) found a T. gal- 

 linarum -like form in the Canada goose 

 {Branta canadensis). 



Location : Ceca, sometimes liver. 



Geographic Distribution : Worldwide. 



Prevalence : Common. McDowell 

 (1953) found T. gallinarum in over 60%of 

 a large number of chickens in Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



Morphology : The body is piriform, 

 7 to 15 by 3 to 9 jj, , with 4 anterior fla- 

 gella and a posterior flagellum which runs 

 along the undulating membrane and ex- 

 tends beyond it. An accessory filament is 



present. The axostyle is long, pointed 

 and slender, without a chromatic ring at 

 its point of emergence. The cytostome is 

 prominent. Supracostal granules but no 

 subcostal or endoaxostylar granules are 

 present. The pelta is elaborate, ending 

 abruptly with a short ventral extension 

 more or less free from the ventral edge 

 of the axostyle, according to McDowell 

 (1953); Marquardt (1954), however, did 

 not find a pelta in his cultures of a strain 

 from a turkey. The shape of the para- 

 basal body is highly variable, but it is 

 usually a ring of variously spaced gran- 

 ules plus 1 or 2 fibrils or rami. The 

 chromosome number is apparently 5. A 

 rather uniform perinuclear cloud of ar- 

 gentophilic granules is usually present 

 (McDowell, 1953). 



The form originally described by 

 Martin and Robertson (1911) had 4 anterior 

 flagella. Allen (1940) described a trichom- 

 onad from the ceca and liver of chickens 

 and turkeys which she considered to be this 

 species but which had 5 anterior flagella. 

 Walker (1948), too, illustrated the trichom- 

 onad he isolated from turkey livers with 5 

 anterior flagella. Further study is needed 

 to determine the relationship of this form 

 to T. gallinarum. McDowell (1953) in- 

 sisted on the fact that the usual number of 

 anterior flagella is 4, rarely 3 and in even 

 rarer cases 5. He studied 1000 slides from 

 a large number of chickens. Marquardt 

 (1954), too, found only 4 anterior flagella 

 in a culture strain from a turkey. 



Pathogenesis : Allen (1936, 1941), 

 Olsen and Allen (1942) and Walker (1948) 

 isolated a trichomonad from turkey liver 

 lesions resembling those of histomonosis 

 and considered that the trichomonad had 

 caused them. The disease they described 

 resembled histomonosis, with cecal and 

 liver lesions, pale yellow, cecal diarrhea, 

 inappetance, loss of weight, and a mor- 

 tality of to 44%. The cecal lesions were 

 said to be the same as those of histomo- 

 nosis, but the liver lesions were said to 

 be smaller, to have irregular outlines and 

 to be raised or level with the liver surface 

 instead of depressed below it. Wichmann 

 and Bankowski (1956) described a similar 

 condition in chukar partridges. However, 



