THE TELOSPORASIDA AND THE COCCIDIA PROPER 



231 



Life Cycle : The endogenous stages 

 occur in the epithelial cells of the kidney 

 tubules. The life cycle has not been 

 studied in detail. The prepatent period is 

 5 to 6 days according to Kotlan (1933). 



Pathogenesis : E. truncata is highly 

 pathogenic for goslings, sometimes wiping 

 out whole flocks within a few days. The 

 disease is usually acute, lasting only 2 or 

 3 days. Affected birds are extremely 

 weak and emaciated. Their kidneys are 

 greatly enlarged, light-colored, with 

 small, yellowish white nodules, streaks 

 and lines on the surface and thruout the 

 parenchyma. The infected epithelial cells 

 are destroyed, and adjacent, uninfected 

 cells are also destroyed by pressure. 

 The infected tubules are so filled with 

 urates and oocysts that they are enlarged 

 to 5 to 10 times the diameter of normal 

 tubules. 



Epidemiology : E. truncata occurs 

 only sporadically in domestic geese in 

 North America. It was first described in 

 the United States by McNutt (1929) in 

 Iowa, and has since been reported by 

 Allen (1933) in Washington, D. C, Adler 

 and Moore (1948) in Washington state, 

 Levine, Morrill and Schmittle (1950) in 

 Illinois, Lindquist, Belding and Hitchcock 

 (1951) in Michigan, Farr and Wehr (1952) 

 in Maryland, and McGregor (1952) in 

 Ontario. It has also been found in New 

 York and Quebec. 



The epidemiology of E. truncata in 

 wild geese is especially interesting (Han- 

 son, Levine and Ivens, 1957). It has 

 been found in the greylag goose {Anser 

 anser) in Europe by Christiansen and 

 Madsen (1948), and in Ross's goose {A. 

 rossi) and the Canada goose {Branta cana- 

 densis) in North America. However, of 

 the 6 wild goose flyways which form ver- 

 tical bands across North America, E. 

 truncata has been found only in the South 

 Atlantic and Pacific flyways, and not from 

 the flyways in between. It is common 

 among Canada geese of the South Atlantic 

 flyway, and has been associated with 

 losses at their winter quarters at Pea 

 Island, North Carolina (Critcher, 1950). 

 Its apparent absence from wild geese in 



the interior flyways does not seem due to 

 the examination of too few birds, since 

 Hanson, Levine and Ivens (1957) failed to 

 find it in 258 wild geese from these fly- 

 ways altho they recognized it in birds from 

 both coasts. Perhaps E. truncata was 

 originally a parasite of greylag and domes- 

 tic geese in Eurasia and has reached North 

 American wild geese relatively recently, 

 entering from both the east and west. 



EIMERIA ANSERIS 

 KOTLAN, 1932 



Hosts : Domestic goose, blue goose 

 (Anser caerulescens), Richardson's 

 Canada goose {Branta canadensis hutch- 

 ins i). 



Location : Small intestine, mainly 

 posterior part. 



Geographic Distribution : Europe, 

 North America. 



Prevalence : E. anser is has been 

 reported from domestic geese only in 

 Europe (Kotlan, 1933; Cerna, 1956) and 

 is apparently not particularly common 

 there. Hanson, Levine and Ivens (1957) 

 found it in 4% of 73 blue geese from Ft. 

 Severn and Weenusk, Ontario and in 33% 

 of 6 Richardson's Canada geese from 

 York Factory, Manitoba. 



Morphology : This species was des- 

 cribed in detail by Hanson, Levine and 

 Ivens (1957). The oocysts have the form 

 of a sphere surmounted by a truncate 

 cone, with a micropyle at the truncate end, 

 and measure 20 to 24 by 16 to 19 /i with a 

 mean of 22 by 11 \x (16 to 23 by 13 to 18 /i 

 according to Kotla'n, 1933). The oocyst 

 wall is smooth, colorless, composed of a 

 single layer about 1 \i thick, and slightly 

 thickened around the micropyle but incised 

 sharply to form a plate or shelf across the 

 micropyle itself. The oocyst residuum is 

 a mass of amorphous material just beneath 

 the micropyle and forming a seal beneath 

 it. An oocyst polar granule is absent. 

 The sporocysts are ovoid and almost com- 

 pletely fill the oocyst. The sporocyst 

 wall is slightly thickened at the small end. 



