FAMILY III. BARTONELLACEAE 



973 



2. Found in the buffalo. 



7. Haemobartonella sturmanii. 

 B. Not found in herbivorous animals. 



1. Found in carnivorous animals (dogs). 



8. Haemobartonella canis. 



2. Found in insectivorous animals (shrews). 



9. Haemohartonella blarinae. 



1. Haemobartonella imiris (Mayer, 

 1921) Tyzzer and Weinman, 1939. {Bar- 

 tonella vfiuris Mayer, Arch. f. Schiffs. u. 

 Tropen-Hyg., 25, 1921, 151; Bartonella muris 

 ratti Regendanz and Kikuth, Compt. rend. 

 Soc. Biol., Paris, 98, 1928, 1578; Tyzzer and 

 Weinman, Amer. Jour. Hyg., 30 (B), 1939, 

 143.) 



mu'ris. L. noun mus the mouse; L. gen. 

 noun mtiris of the mouse. 



Slender rods with rounded ends, fre- 

 quently showing granules or swellings at 

 either one or both extremities and dumb- 

 bell, coccoid or diplococcoid forms. Occur 

 singly, in pairs or in short chains of 3 or 4 

 elements and, when abundant, in parallel 

 groupings. The rods measure 0.1 by 0.7 to 

 1.3 microns, sometimes as much as half the 

 length of a red blood cell, and the coccoids 

 measure 0.1 to 0.2 micron in diameter. Elec- 

 tron photographs of blood preparations, 

 utilizing enlargements of 7000 X or more, 

 show the rods to be composed of mono- 

 morphic, rounded discs 0.3 to 0.5 micron in 

 diameter; no cell membrane is evident, and 

 the protoplasm appears structureless. No 

 fiagella were demonstrated (Wigand and 

 Peters, Ztschr. f. Tropenmed. u. Parasit., 2, 

 1950, 206; also see ibid., 3, 1952, 437). These 

 organisms have been reported as occurring 

 on and in erythrocytes and in depressions of 

 the surfaces of the red blood cells as well as 

 in the plasma. There is lack of agreement 

 among investigators regarding the ability 

 to see and to determine the motility of these 

 organisms in the fresh state. Various au- 

 thors report (1) Brownian movement, (2) 

 slow and sinuous motion in the red cell, or 

 (3) rapid motion. Preferred stains are those 

 of the Romanowsky tj'pe. With Giemsa's 

 stain, various investigators report (1) an 

 intense red coloration, (2) a bluish tinge 

 with distinct pink shading, or (3) blue with 

 purple granules. With Wright's stain, the 

 organisms stain bluish with reddish granules 



at the ends. With Schilling's methylene 

 blue-eosin stain, the organisms stain a 

 bright red color and the erythrocytes stain 

 blue. Stain faintly with Manson's stain, 

 pyronin-methyl green and fuchsin. Gram- 

 negative. 



Cultivated with difficulty. Divergent re- 

 sults have been published. Growth has been 

 reported on various media (blood agar, agar 

 with 2 per cent defibrinated rat blood, horse 

 blood agar, N. N. N., Blutrosplatte of Weth- 

 mar, hormone agar with blood of rabbit, 

 horse or man, ascitic fluid agar, chocolate 

 agar, semi-solid rabbit serum agar, semi- 

 solid rabbit blood agar, Noguchi-Wenyon 

 medium, defibrinated rat blood, glucose 

 broth, Tarozzi broth, peptone water), but 

 usually growth was scant or could not be 

 continued by transfer to the same medium, 

 or the organism isolated was either non- 

 infectious or the possibility of latent infec- 

 tions in the recipient animal was not ex- 

 cluded. Best results are apparently obtained 

 with semi-solid rabbit- or rat-serum agar 

 and semi-solid rabbit-blood agar. No con- 

 clusive results have been reported in tissue 

 culture; with the chick embryo, the reports 

 are either contradictory or divergent. 



Filterability: Non-filterable with either 

 the Seitz or the Berkefeld N filter. 



Immunology: No authentic case of true 

 natural immunity in rats has been estab- 

 lished. Acquired immunity occurs in (1) the 

 latently infected rat, (2) the infected rat 

 after splenectomy and recovery from the 

 disease, the period of resistance correspond- 

 ing to the duration of latency, (3) the non- 

 splenectomized, non-carrier rat following 

 infection, and (4) animals other than the 

 rat following infection. 



Serology: No precii)itins, thrombocyto- 

 barin, isoagglutinins or cold hemolysins 

 have been reported in the sera of anemic 

 rats. Contradictory results have been ob- 

 tained in the Weil-Felix reaction utilizing 



