O. moubata 101 



Africa) 1 . When a female 0. moubata sucks blood containing Sp. 

 duttoni, the latter pass into the ovaries of the tick and penetrate the 

 undeveloped eggs, within which they multiply. They persist in the 

 tick which developes from the egg and pass out of its mouthparts when 

 it feeds in the 1st nymphal stage upon the blood of a fresh host. 

 Monkeys and rats in England have thus been infected with the disease 

 through the agency of infected ticks brought from Africa. Button and 

 Todd, in addition, found that the spirochaetes persist in the gut of the 

 tick up to 5 weeks after it has fed. The tick, once infected, may harbour 

 the parasite for months and transmit it when it has occasion to feed. 

 Finally, Mollers (1907, p. 277) finds that the spirochaete is transmitted 

 to the third generation of ticks, the second generation having been fed 

 on blood free from spirochaetes; such ticks may infect animals (rats, 

 monkeys) by their bites. 



Filariasis in Man: Christy (1903, p. 187) considered that 0. 

 moubata is capable of transmitting Filaria perstans to man. In this 

 disease the filarial embryos circulate in the blood. Feldmann (1905, 

 p. 64), whose statements have been criticised by Kerr (1905, p. 126), 

 advanced the extraordinary hypothesis that the ticks infected with 

 filariae lay their eggs in bananas stored in native huts and in some way 

 give off the worms which are eaten with the bananas by the natives. 

 Wellman (1907 and MS.) states that he has observed a certain degree of 

 development of F. perstans embryos in moubata. His results are very 

 suggestive, since he worked with moubata which he raised from the egg. 

 The matter requires further investigation. 



Spirochaetosis in Fowls. It is interesting to note that Ftilleborn and 

 Mayer (1908, p. 31) have found that they could transmit Spirochaeta 

 marchouxi (see p. 88) by means of 0. moubata in experiments con- 

 ducted in Hamburg. In the positive experiments which they report, 

 the ticks had fed twice before upon infected fowls. The ticks were 

 infective for 103 days after feeding on a fowl harbouring the spirochaetes 

 in its blood. 



Brumpt (1901, p. 578) observed that the parasites of tertian malaria 

 degenerated inside the gut of moubata and ticks fed on himself after 

 feeding on malarial blood produced no ill effects. 



1 Massey (1905, p. 225) and Wellman (1905, p. 97) also observed the spirochaetes in 

 Angola. The epidemiology and history of the disease in German E. Africa are discussed 

 by Werner (1906, p. 776). 



