280 SOME MINUTE ANIMAL PARASITES 



Another group of organisms, showing some 

 resemblances with the Haplosporidia and with the 

 Myxosporidia and Microsporidia, is known as the 

 Sarcosporidia. In England and on the Continent one 

 of these organisms is found in sheep, the muscles of 

 the oesophagus and its neighbourhood being flecked 

 with white streaks and patches, 

 which are colonies of parasites. 

 A young parasite is shown in 

 Fig. 55, from the oesophagus 

 of a sheep. Horses and goats 

 also may be infected. Pigs, 

 too, are liable to attacks of 

 Sarcosporidia. In Egypt the 

 throats of slaughtered buffaloes 

 show white masses of Sarco- 

 sporidia resembling blisters an 

 inch and a half to two inches 

 long, and the same condition 

 is found in the roebuck. The 

 parasite, Sarcocystis tenella bu- 

 %? bali, is very common in the 

 FIG. 55 SARCOCYSTIS muscles of the tongue, larynx, 



OF T M HE T !HES SOPHAGDS and diaphragm, as well as in 

 the skeletal muscles of buffaloes 



in Ceylon. The use of the infected meat does not 

 seem injurious to man, but the spores may cause 

 irregular fever. In none of the above cases does the 

 organism appear to have marked external ill-effects 

 on its host. Sarcosporidia are also known in a very 

 few reptiles, and some birds. Cases of sarcospori- 

 diosis have been reported from man, the heart and 



