KLOSSIELLA AND HEPATOZOON 



255 



of the kidney, where they become gamonts 

 and where gametogony and sporogony take 

 place. A macrogamete and microgameto- 

 cyte are found together in syzygy within a 

 vacuole in the host cell. The microgame- 

 tocyte divides to form 2 to 4 microgam- 

 etes, one of which fertilizes the macro- 

 gamete. The resultant zygote (sporont or 

 mother sporoblast) divides by multiple 

 fission to form a number of sporoblasts. 

 Each of these develops into a sporocyst 

 containing 8 to 25 or more sporozoites. 

 The sporocysts are enclosed within a 

 membrane, but all authorities do not agree 

 whether it is a true oocyst or simply the 

 remnant of the host cell. 



The sporocysts are released into the 

 lumen of the kidney tubules by rupture of 

 the host cell, and pass out in the urine. 



KLOSSIELLA EQUI 

 BAUMANN, 1946 



Synonym: Einieria utinensls (?). 



Hosts: Horse, ass. 



Location: Kidneys. 



Geographic Distribution : 

 Turkey, North America. 



Europe, 



Prevalence : Unknown. This species 

 has been encountered only in the course of 

 histopathologic examinations of the kidney 

 for some other reason. Baumann (1946) 

 found it in the kidney of a horse from 

 Hungary which had died of pneumonia, 

 Seibold and Thorson (1955) found it in the 

 kidney of a jackass in Alabama which had 

 died of spinal injuries incurred while he 

 was being roped. Akcay and Urman(1954) 

 found it on histopathologic examination of 

 the kidneys of 72 out of 117 donkeys in the 

 course of an experiment on infectious 

 anemia. 



Morphology : The stages in the kidney 

 are the only ones known. These are found 

 in the epithelial cells lining the thick 

 limbs of Henle's loops in the medullary 

 rays. Schizonts and merozoites have not 

 been recognized. The macrogametes and 



microgametocytes develop in syzygy. The 

 latter form 4 microgametes (Baumann, 

 1946). After fertilization, the zygote 

 grows to 38 to 46 by 32 to 39 \i and pro- 

 duces a large number of sporoblasts by 

 multiple nuclear fission followed by bud- 

 ding from a large, central residual mass. 

 Each sporoblast develops into a sporocyst. 

 The fully developed "oocysts" are thin- 

 walled sacs 50 to 90 by 35 /i containing as 

 many as 40 ovoid sporocysts measuring 

 8 to 10 by 4 to 5 (i . Each sporocyst con- 

 tains 8 to 12 sporozoites. Seibold and 

 Thorson (1955) found 40 sporocysts in a 

 cross section of one of the largest sacs 

 they saw, so there must have been many 

 more actually present. 



Pathogenesis : Apparently non-patho- 

 genic. 



Remarks : Pachinger (1886) des- 

 cribed parasites resembling EiDieria fal- 

 ciformis in the kidneys of 3 horses. These 

 were almost certainly K. equi. Selan and 

 Vittorio (1924) described a parasite from 

 the lungs and gall bladder of a horse in 

 Italy which they called Eimeria utinensis. 

 Their description was too poor to be sure 

 what they actually saw, but it may perhaps 

 have been a stage of K. equi. 



OTHER SPECIES OF KLOSSIELLA 



Klossiella muris Smith and Johnson, 

 1902 is apparently fairly common in lab- 

 oratory mice thruout the world, but has 

 been reported only once in wild house 

 mice. In the laboratory colonies in which 

 it is found, 20 to 100% of the mice are in- 

 fected. Each microgametocyte forms 2 

 microgametes. Each sporont forms 12 to 

 16 sporocysts, each of which contains 

 about 25 to 34 banana-shaped sporozoites. 

 K. muris is ordinarily non-pathogenic, 

 altho in heavy infections the kidneys may 

 have minute, greyish, necrotic foci over 

 their entire surface, and the epithelium 

 of the infected kidney tubules is destroyed 

 (Smith and Johnson, 1902). Otto (1957) 

 described a perivascular, follicular, 

 lymphocytic infiltration in the region of 

 the medullary cortex which he considered 

 of diagnostic significance. There is no 



