PLASMODIUM, HAEMOPROTEUS AND LEUCOCYTOZOON 



281 



LEUCOCYTOZ OON SA BRA ZESI 

 MATfflS AND LEGER, 1910 



Synonyms : Lencocylozoon scli/ieff- 

 iieri Prowazek, 1912 pro parte. 



Hosts : Chicken. 



Location : The gametocytes are in 

 the leucocytes and erythrocytes. 



Geographic Distribution : Indochina, 

 Malaya, India, Sumatra, Java. 



Prevalence : Relatively uncommon 

 except perhaps in Malaya. L. sabrazesi 

 has been found in Indochina by Mathis and 

 Leger (1910), in Malaya by Kuppusamy 

 (1936), and in India by Ramanujachari and 

 Alwar (1953), Ramaswami (1955) and 

 Biswal and Naik (1958). In addition, de 

 Haan (1911) reported a Leiicocyluzooii in 

 the chicken in Java which he assigned to 

 L. i/eavei (a species with elongate gameto- 

 cytes occurring in the guinea fowl) but 

 which was undoubtedly L. sahyazesi. 



Morphology : The mature gametocytes 

 are elongate and measure about 24 by 4 (i 

 according to Mathis and Leger (1910). 

 According to Ramanujachari and Alwar 

 (1953), the macrogametes average 22 by 

 6. 5|j. and the microgametocytes 20 by 6/j. 

 The host cells are spindle-shaped, with 

 long, cytoplasmic "horns" extending be- 

 yond the parasites, and measure about 67 

 by &\i according to Mathis and Leger (1910). 

 The host cell nucleus forms a narrow, 

 darkly staining band along one side of the 

 parasite. The macrogametes stain more 

 darkly with Romanowsky stains than the 

 microgametocytes, and have a more com- 

 pact nucleus. 



Life Cycle : Unknown. 



in the chicken in Sumatra. He saw and 

 illustrated both spindle-shaped and round 

 host cells, but gave dimensions only for 

 the spindle-shaped ones. These ranged in 

 length from 45 by 66 /i . He also observed 

 granules in the host cell cytoplasm which 

 stained red with Giemsa's stain. He stated 

 that these granules were partially missing 

 in L. caiilleryi and L. sabrazesi and that 

 he was establishing his new species because 

 of this and also because of the difference in 

 size between them and his form. However, 

 the dimensions he quoted for L. sabrazesi 

 were those of the parasite itself and not 

 those of the host cell, and the dimensions 

 he gave for L. schiieffiieri were those of 

 the host cell and not those of the parasite 

 itself. There is actually no significant 

 difference in size between the two forms, 

 and Prowazek' s name becomes a synonym 

 of L. sabrazesi and also, in part, of L. 

 caiilleryi. Prowazek also saw Trypano- 

 soma in the same chicken, and thought it 

 was a stage of Leiicocyiozooi/. 



The type of cell parasitized by Leuco- 

 cytozoon has been the subject of some dis- 

 cussion (see under L. siiitoiidi, p. 276). 

 The host ceils containing mature gameto- 

 cytes are so distorted as to be unrecog- 

 nizable. Both Ramanujachari and Alwar 

 (1953) and Ramaswami (1955) considered 

 them to be erythrocytes. In the slide sent 

 to me by Biswal, I saw one very young 

 parasite in a cell which appeared to be an 

 erythrocyte, but the host cells of other, 

 somewhat older parasites did not appear 

 to be. Further study is needed on this 

 point. At any rate, the parasites do not 

 form hematin granules from hemoglobin. 



LEUCOCYTOZOON MARCHOUXI 

 MATHIS AND LEGER, 1910 



Pathogenesis : According to Kuppus- 

 amy (1936), this species causes a disease 

 in chickens characterized by anemia, py- 

 rexia, diarrhea, paralysis of the legs and 

 a ropy discharge from the mouth. Raman- 

 ujachari and Alwar (1953) observed similar 

 signs in the bird they studied. 



Remarks : Prowazek (1912) gave the 

 name L. schueffneri to the forms he found 



Synonyms: Leiicocytozooii tiirtiir. 



Hosts : Various doves and pigeons. 

 Levine (1954) and Levine and Kantor (1959) 

 assembled reports of Leucocytozoon from 

 17 species of 7 genera of columbiform 

 birds. All but one were probably L. )}iar- 

 cliOHxi. There is only a single report of 

 this species in the domestic pigeon, by 

 Jansen (1952) in South Africa. 



