970 



ORDER I. RICKETTSIALES 



1. Bartonella bacillifonnis (Strong 

 et al., 1913) Strong et al., 1915. (Bartonia 

 bacillijormis Strong, Tyzzer, Brues, Sel- 

 lards and Gastiaburu, Jour. Amer. Med. 

 Assoc, 61, 1913, 1715; Strong, Tyzzer and 

 Sellards, Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 6J,, 1915, 

 808; also see Tyzzer and Weinman, Amer. 

 Jour. Hyg., 30 (B), 1939, 143; and Wein- 

 man, Trans. Amer. Philosoph. Soc, S3 

 (N.S.), 1944, 246.) 



ba.cil.li.for'mis. L. dim. noun bacillus a 

 small staff, rodlet; L. noun forma shape, 

 form; M.L. adj. bacilliformis rodlet-shaped. 



Small, polymorphic organisms which 

 show their greatest morphological range in 

 the blood of man where they appear as red- 

 violet rods or coccoids situated on the red 

 cells when stained with Giemsa's stain. 

 Bacilliform bodies are the most typical, 

 measuring 0.25 to 0.5 by 1.0 to 3.0 microns. 

 Often curved; may show polar enlargement 

 and granules at one or both ends. Rounded 

 organisms measure about 0.75 micron in di- 

 ameter, and a ring-like variety is sometimes 

 abundant. On semi-solid media, a mixture 

 of rods and granules appears. The organisms 

 may occur singly or in large and small, ir- 

 regular dense collections measuring up to 

 25 microns or more in length. Punctiform, 

 spindle-shaped and ellipsoidal forms occur 

 which vary in size from 0.2 to 0.5 by 0.3 to 

 3.0 microns. Motile in cultures. Electron 

 microscope techniques applied to cultures 

 show a definite cell membrane, undiffer- 

 entiated protoplasm and a tuft of 1 to 10 

 polar flagella which are appro.ximately 20 

 millimicrons in diameter and which have 

 an average undulation phase of 0.95 micron 

 (Peters and Wigand, Ztschr. f. Tropenmed. 

 u. Parasit., 3, 1952, 313; also see Bact. Rev., 

 19, 1955, 150). Stain poorly or not at all with 

 many aniline dyes but satisfactorily with 

 Romanowsky's and Giemsa's stains. Not 

 acid-fast. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin: No liquefaction. 



Cultivation: Grows in semi-solid agar 

 with fresh rabbit serum and rabbit hemo- 

 globin, in semi-solid agar with the blood of 

 man, horse or rabbit with or without the 

 addition of fresh tissue and certain carbo- 

 hydrates, in other culture media containing 

 blood, serum or plasma, in Huntoon's hor- 



mone agar at 20 per cent, in semi -solid 

 gelatin media, in blood-glucose-cystine agar 

 and in chorio-allantoic fluid and yolk sac 

 of chick embryo. 



No action on lead acetate. 



No acid or gas from glucose, sucrose, ga- 

 lactose, maltose, fructose, xylose, lactose, 

 mannose, mannitol, dulcitol, arabinose, raf- 

 finose, rhamnose, dextrin, inulin, salicin or 

 amygdalin. 



Obligately aerobic. 



Grows at 28° and 37° C., with greater lon- 

 gevity at 28° C. Cultures viable after storage 

 for five years at —70° C. 



Immunology: Natural immunity to in- 

 fection has not been demonstrated in sus- 

 ceptible species. Acquired immunity is ap- 

 parent both during and after the disease. 

 Bartonellae from different sources appear 

 to provoke similar responses. Bartonellae 

 from Oroya fever protect against infection 

 with organisms obtained from verruga 

 cases. 



Serology: Immune sera fix complement; 

 employing heterologous strains, no signifi- 

 cant titer differences were found in quanti- 

 tative tests. Immune rabbit sera have not 

 agglutinated Proteus OXjg , OX2 or OXK at 

 titers above 1 :20. Agglutination of suspen- 

 sions of Bartonella by sera from recovered 

 cases has been reported. 



Pathogenicity: Three forms of the disease 

 bartonellosis occur in man: the anemic (Or- 

 oya fever), the eruptive (Verruga Peruana) 

 and, rarely, mixed types of both of these 

 forms. Experimental Oroya fever has not 

 been successfully produced in animals, ex- 

 cept rarely in an atypical form in monkej'S. 

 Experimental Verruga Peruana has been 

 produced in man and in a number of species 

 of monkeys. 



Antibiotic- and chemo-therapy: Not sen- 

 sitive in vivo to neosalvarsan nor in general 

 to other arsenical compounds; sensitive to 

 penicillin, streptomycin and chloramphen- 

 icol. Inhibited in vitro by 0.1 microgram of 

 oxytetracycline per cc of semi-solid rabbit- 

 serum agar at pH 8.0. 



Source: Isolated from blood and endo- 

 thelial cells of lymph nodes, spleen and liver 

 of human cases of Oroya fever; also found 



