THE TELOSPORASIDA AND THE COCCIDIA PROPER 



187 



a roe deer. Balozet (1932) found it in 21% 

 of 63 sheep and 22% of 41 goats in Tunisia. 

 Svanbaev (1957) found it in 9% of 302 sheep 

 in Kazakhstan. 



Morphology : This species has been 

 described by Kotlan, Mocsy and Vajda 

 (1929), Balozet (1932) and Christensen 

 (1938a). The oocysts are subspherical, 

 ellipsoidal or spherical, 12 to 22 by 10 to 

 18/i with a mean of 16. 5 by 14. 1 jj, (Chris- 

 tensen) or 17. 2 by 13. 5|u (Balozet). 

 Their length width ratio is 1. to 1.5 with 

 a mean of 1.18 (Christensen). The oocyst 

 wall is smooth, homogeneous, pale yellow 

 to yellowish green, and composed of 2 

 layers of which the outer is half as thick 

 as the inner; there is a heavy, black re- 

 fraction line on each side of the inner 

 layer, according to Christensen. Accord- 

 ing to Balozet, the wall appears to be 

 lined by a membrane. The sporont is 

 clear. A micropyle is absent; according 

 to Christensen, the oocyst wall occasion- 

 ally appears slightly paler at one end than 

 the other. An oocyst polar granule and 

 oocyst residuum are absent. The sporo- 

 cysts are oval. The sporocyst residuum 

 is indistinct if present at all. The spor- 

 ulation time is 1 to 2 days (Christensen) 

 or 7 to 8 days (Balozet). 



Life Cycle : The life cycle of E. 

 parva in sheep has been described by 

 Kotlan, Pelle'rdy and Versenyi (1951). 

 The schizonts are found thruout the small 

 intestine. They measure up to 185 to 256 

 by 128 to 179^1 and are easily visible to 

 the naked eye as whitish bodies. They 

 lie in the mucosa, usually near the sur- 

 face but sometimes as far down as the 

 muscularis mucosae. They invade endo- 

 thelial cells and enlarge both the host cell 

 and its nucleus enormously. They are 

 surrounded by a rather thick layer of 

 connective tissue which becomes thinner 

 as they increase in size. Each schizont 

 produced thousands of straight merozoites 

 10 to 12^1 long. 



Kotlan, Pellerdy and Versenyi (1951) 

 also found a second, much smaller type of 

 schizont in the small intestine. It occurred 

 in the superficial epithelial cells, was 

 10 to 12 fi in diameter and contained about 



10 to 20 merozoites 2. 5 to 3 /i long. They 

 were not sure, however, whether it was 

 part of the life cycle of E. parva. 



The sexual stages occur mostly in the 

 cecum and colon and to a lesser extent in 

 the small intestine. They are found in the 

 epithelial cells and measure 15 to 19 by 10 

 to 16 p.. 



Pathogenesis : This species is appar- 

 ently not very pathogenic. Most of the 

 damage is caused by the sexual stages in 

 the large and small intestines. In a lamb 

 killed by Kotlan, Pelle'rdy and Versenyi 

 (1951) 16 days after experimental infection, 

 the contents of the cecum and colon were 

 semifluid, dark and mixed with blood in 

 places. The wall was thickened and its 

 surface uneven and denuded of epithelium 

 in places. By histologic examination of the 

 cecum, it was found that the mucosa had 

 been stripped from the glandular layer in 

 places and the tissue had become necrotic 

 and infiltrated with lymphocytes and neu- 

 trophiles but no eosinophiles. Sharply 

 separated from these necrotic areas were 

 other areas in which most of the epithelial 

 cells contained microgametocytes, macro- 

 gametes or young oocysts. 



EIMERIA PUNCTATA 

 LANDERS, 1955 



Synonym : Eimeria honessi Landers, 



1952. 



Host : Sheep. 



Location : Unknown. Oocysts found 

 in feces. 



Geographic Distribution : 

 America (Wyoming). 



North 



Prevalence : Landers (1952) found 

 this species in 2 of 9 sheep in Wyoming. 



Morphology : This species has been 

 described by Landers (1952). The oocysts 

 are subspherical, 18 to 25 by 16 to 21 fi. 

 with a mean of 21.2 by 17.7 j^. Their 

 length-width ratio is 1. 1 to 1. 3 with a 

 mean of 1. 20. The oocyst wall has 



