PLASMODIUM, HAEMOPROTEUS AND LEUCOCYTOZOON 



271 



treatment is usually hardly worthwhile, 

 and preventive measures are recommended 

 instead. 



Prevention and Control : Since bird 

 malaria is carried by mosquitoes, pre- 

 vention depends upon mosquito control. 

 Residual spraying of poultry houses with 

 insecticides such as DDT or lindane should 

 be effective. Birds can also be raised in 

 screened quarters where mosquitoes can- 

 not get to them. 



Genus HAEMOPROTEUS Kruse, 1 890 



The gametocytes occur in the ery- 

 throcytes and are usually halter- shaped. 

 Schizogony takes place in the endothelial 

 cells of the blood vessels, especially in 

 the lungs, and not in the erythrocytes. 

 The known vectors are louse -flies (Hippo- 

 boscidae) and midges {CuUcoides). Mem- 

 bers of this genus are parasites of birds 

 and reptiles. A synonym of this generic 

 name is Halteridium Labbe", 1894. 



Members of this genus are extremely 

 common in wild birds and also occur in 

 domestic pigeons, ducks and turkeys. 

 They are not an important cause of disease. 

 Coatney (1936) gave a checklist and host 

 index of the species of Haemoproteus , and 

 Herman (1944) listed the species reported 

 from North American birds. 



Life Cycle : The life cycle of Haemo- 

 proteus is similar to that of Plasmodium 

 except that schizogony does not take place 

 in the erythrocytes but in the endothelial 

 cells of the blood vessels, and the vectors 

 are not mosquitoes but hippoboscid flies 

 or midges. 



HAEMOPROTEUS COLUMBAE 

 KRUSE, 1890 



Synonyms : Haemoproteus maccal- 

 lumi, Haemoproteus melopeliae, Haemo- 

 proteus turtur, Haemoproteus vilhenai (?). 



Hosts : Domestic and wild pigeons, 

 mourning dove, turtle dove and a large 

 number of other wild columbiform birds. 



Levine and Kantor (1959) tabulated reports 

 of Haemoproteus, all of which were prob- 

 ably H. columbae, from 45 species belong- 

 ing to 19 genera of columbiform birds. 



H. maccallumi was first described 

 from the mourning dove {Zenaidura 

 macroura). It is morphologically indis- 

 tinguishable from H. columbae. Huff 

 (1932) transmitted it from the mourning 

 dove to the pigeon, but Coatney (1933) was 

 unable to transmit it from the pigeon to 

 the mourning dove; both used the hippo- 

 boscid fly, Pseudolynchia canariensis, 

 as the vector. There may be strain dif- 

 ferences between the different hosts, but 

 until greater differences than these are 

 brought out, it is probably better to use 

 the name H. columbae for the species 

 from columbiform birds. 



Location : The gametocytes are in 

 the erythrocytes. Schizogony occurs in 

 the endothelial cells of the blood vessels. 



Geographic Distribution : Worldwide. 



Prevalence : Common. Thirty-eight 

 reports of H. columbae from the domestic 

 pigeon were tabulated by Levine and Kan- 

 tor (1959). Among those in which rela- 

 tively large numbers of birds were ex- 

 amined, Coatney (1935) found it in all of 

 about 28 pigeons in midwestern United 

 States, Kartman (1949) found it in 82% of 

 101 pigeons in the Honolulu zoo, Giovannoni 

 (1946) found it in 58% of 159 pigeons in 

 southern Curitiba, Brazil, Acton and 

 Knowles (1914) found it in all of 75 pigeons 

 from the plains of India, and Singh, Nair 

 and David (1951) found it in 22% of 214 pig- 

 eons in Delhi, India. 



Herman (1938) found it in 8% of 86 

 mourning doves {Zenaidura macroura car- 

 olinensis) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 

 Huff (1939) found it in 47% of 188 mourning 

 doves, mostly from Illinois, Couch (1952) 

 found it in 56% of 213 mourning doves in 

 Texas, and Hanson et al. (1957) found it in 

 30% of 392 immature and 43% of 72 adult 

 mourning doves in Illinois; its incidence 

 in this last survey increased steadily from 

 7 to 8% in very young doves to 70% in the 

 oldest immatures, and varied markedly in 



