THE AMOEBAE 



151 



ENTAMOEBA CAPRAE 

 FANTHAM, 1923 



Fantham (1923) described this species 

 from the intestine and reticulum of a 

 lightly infected goat in South Africa. It is 

 very large, one streaming individual 

 measuring 34 by 24 jn. The pseudopods 

 are short and lobose, and red cells may 

 be ingested. The nucleus is oval, 9 to 

 10 /i in diameter, with an eccentric endo- 

 some. No cysts were seen. The relation- 

 ship of this form to other goat amoebae 

 remains to be determined. 



papio, kra monkey, green monkey, Anubis 

 baboon, Gelada baboon and mandrill, 

 (Mackinnon and Dibb, 1938; Wenrich, 1937). 

 In addition, Mackinnon and Dibb (1938) 

 found this species in the giant forest hog, 

 Hyloclioerus meintritz-hageni. Smith 

 (1928) infected rats with /. buetschlii 

 from man, and Pavloff (1935) did so with 

 a strain from the pig. However, Simitch 

 et al. (1959) were unable to infect man 

 with cysts from fresh pig feces or to infect 

 the pig with cysts from fresh human feces; 

 they gave no details of their experiments. 



Location: Cecum and colon. 



ENTAMOEBA SP. 



Brenon (1953) tabulated 3 deaths from 

 amoebic dysentery among the causes of 

 death he observed in 1005 chinchillas in 

 California. Since the amoebae of chin- 

 chillas have apparently not been described, 

 they cannot be assigned to any species. 



Genus lOD AMOEBA Dobell, 1919 



In this genus the nucleus is vesicular, 

 with a large endosome rich in chromatin, 

 a layer of lightly staining globules sur- 

 rounding the endosome, and some achro- 

 matic strands between the endosome and 

 nuclear membrane. The cysts contain a 

 large glycogen body which stains darkly 

 with iodine. They are ordinarily uninu- 

 cleate. This genus occurs in vertebrates. 

 A single species is recognized. 



lOD AMOEBA BUETSCHLII 

 (VON PROWAZEK, 1912) 

 DOBELL, 1919 



Synonyms : Entamoeba williamsi 

 pro parte, Endoliniax williamsi, Endo- 

 limax pileonucleatus, lodamoeba wenyoni, 

 lodamoeba suis, Endolimax kueneni. 



Hosts : Pig, man, chimpanzee, gor- 

 illa, macaques and other monkeys and 

 baboons, including Macaca mulatta, M. 

 irus, M. sancti-johannis, M. lasiotis, 

 M. philippinensis , Cercocebus aethiops, 

 Cercopithecus mona, C. ascanius, Papio 



Geographic Distribution : Worldwide. 



Prevalence: /. buetschlii is the com- 

 monest amoeba of swine, and the pig was 

 probably its original host. Frye and 

 Meleney (1932) found it in 24% of 127 pigs 

 in Tennessee. Alicata (1932) found it in 

 25% of 35 pigs in the U. S. Cauchemez 

 (1921) estimated that it was present in 50 

 to 60% of the pigs he examined in France. 

 Noller (1922) found it in about 20% of those 

 he examined in Germany. Pavloff (1935) 

 found it in 29% of 530 pigs in France and 

 30% of 1310 pigs in Bulgaria. Simitch 

 et al. (1959) found it in 8% of 1800 pigs in 

 Yugoslavia. Kessel (1928a) found it in 

 42% of the pigs he examined in China, and 

 Chang (1938) found it in 51% of 209 pigs in 

 China. 



According to Belding (1952), I. buet- 

 schlii was found in 8. 4% of 17, 568 persons 

 in 20 surveys thruout the world, and in 4% 

 of the people in American surveys. Wen- 

 rich (1937) found it in 44% of 55 apes and 

 monkeys which he examined. 



Morphology : Wenrich (1937), among 

 others, has studied the morphology of /. 

 buetschlii. The trophozoite is usually 9 

 to 14/1 long but may range from" 4 to 20 /x. 

 It has clear, blunt pseudopods which form 

 slowly, and it moves rather slowly. The 

 ectoplasm is clear, but not well separated 

 from the granular endoplasm. Food vac- 

 uoles containing bacteria and yeasts are 

 present in the cytoplasm. The nucleus is 

 relatively large, and ordinarily contains 

 a large, smoothly rounded, central 



