THE TRICHOMONADS 



103 



Genus PENTATRICHOMONAS 

 Mesnil, 1914 



Members of this genus have 5 anter- 

 ior flagella. 



PENTATRICHOMONAS HOMINIS 

 (DAVAINE, 1860) 



Synonyms : Cercomonas hominis, 

 Monocercomonas hominis, Trichomonas 

 intestinalis. Trichomonas confusa, Pen- 

 tatrichomonas ardin delteili, Tricliom- 

 onas felis, Trichomonas parva, Pentatri- 

 chomonas canis auri. 



Disease : None . 



Hosts : Man, gibbon, chimpanzee, 

 orang-utan, rhesus monkey, pigtailed 

 monkey {Macaca nemestrina), brown 

 capuchin (Cebus fatuellus), weeping 

 capuchin (C. apella), white-throated 

 capuchin (C. capucinus), black spider 

 monkey {Ateles ater), white-crested titi 

 monkey (Callicebus amictus), Guinea 

 baboon {Papio papio), Humboldt's woolly 

 monkey {Lagothrix lagotricha), vervet 

 monkey {Cercopithecus pygerythrus), dog, 

 cat, rat, mouse, golden hamster. The 

 primates were listed by Flick (1954). 



Kessel (1928) infected kittens with 

 trichomonads from man, the monkey and 

 rat. Simitch (1932, 1932a, 1933) trans- 

 mitted P. hominis from the rat to the cat, 

 dog and man. Saxe (1954) transmitted it 

 from the golden hamster to the laboratory 

 rat and from the rat to the hamster. 

 Simitch, Petrovitch and Lepech (1954) in- 

 fected the white mouse, laboratory rat, 

 guinea pig, ground squirrel (Citellus ci- 

 telliis ), dog, cat and chicken with P. ho- 

 minis from man. 



Location: Cecum, colon. 



Geographic Distribution : Worldwide. 



Prevalence : Common. 



Morphology : The following descrip- 

 tion is based primarily on Wenrich (1947) 

 and Kirby (1945). The body is usually 



piriform, 8 to 20 by 3 to 14 /i. Five an- 

 terior flagella are ordinarily present, al- 

 tho some organisms may have 4 and a few 

 3. Flick (1954) found in a study of more 

 than 13,000 individuals from 13 P. hominis 

 strains from 13 hosts that 77% had 5 fla- 

 gella, 17% had 4, 5% had 3, and 1% had 6 

 or more anterior flagella. Four of the 

 anterior flagella are grouped together and 

 the fifth is separate and directed poster- 

 iorly. A sixth flagellum runs along the 

 undulating membrane and extends beyond 

 it as a free trailing flagellum. The undu- 

 lating membrane extends the full length 

 of the body. An accessory filament, a 

 costa and paracostal granules are present. 

 The axostyle is hyaline, thick, with a 

 sharply pointed tip but without a chromatic 

 ring at its point of exit. The parabasal 

 body is small and ellipsoidal. The bleph- 

 aroplast is composed of 2 granules. The 

 pelta is crescent-shaped, prolonged dor- 

 sally in a filament which passes posteriorly 

 in the cytoplasm dorsal to the nucleus. A 

 cytostome is present. There are 5 or 6 

 chromosomes. 



Pathogenesis : Non- pathogenic. 



Cultivation : P. hominis is readily 

 cultivable in the usual trichomonad media. 



PENT A TRICHOMONAS 

 SP. ALLEN, 1936 



Synonym : Pentatrichomonas gal- 

 linarum auct. 



Hosts : Chicken, turkey, guinea fowl. 



Location: Ceca, liver. 



Geographic Distribution : Probably 

 worldwide. 



Prevalence : Unknown. 



Morphology : Pentatricliomonas sp. 

 resembles T. gallinarum morphologically 

 except that it has 5 anterior flagella. Four 

 of these are of equal length and the fifth is 

 about half as long as the others. The body 

 is usually spherical, sometimes more or 

 less pear-shaped, fixed specimens 



