718 THE BLOOD-INHABITING SPIROCHSETES 



never perish in the blood in vivo : they undergo no bacteriolytic change and are 

 not taken up by the leucocytes. As soon as the fever passes off the Spirochsetes 

 are phagocyted by the mononuclear phagocytes in the spleen : when phagocyted 

 they lose their staining capacity and are dissolved en bloc without undergoing any 

 granular disintegration. The birds die after the parasites are phagocyted the 

 defensive mechanism being unable to deal with the toxin. 



2. Spirochaeta marchouxi. 



Syn. Spirochceta gallince. 



This parasite which resembles the 8. anserina was discovered by Marchoux and 

 Salimbeni in the blood of fowls suffering from a disease prevalent in Rio de Janeiro. 

 The same disease has been found among fowls in Tunis, in the Soudan, in Senegal, 

 [in India (Greig), in Cairo (Bitter), in South Australia (Johnson and Nuttall)]. 



Galli-Valerio considers that 8. marchouxi and S. anserina are the same organism 

 but Brumpt, Borrel and other observers from the facts of crossed immunity believe 

 that the diseases of fowls due to infection with spirochsetes are different diseases 

 due to different though closely related parasites-: so that they describe the Rio de 

 Janeiro parasite as S. marchouxi seu gallinarum, the Tunis parasite as 8. nicolei and 

 the Senegal parasite as S. neveuxi. 



8. marchouxi is pathogenic for fowls, geese, ducks, sparrows and turtle doves. 

 Inoculated into rabbits it gives rise to a disease of short duration which resolves 

 spontaneously. 



The disease can be transmitted by the inoculation of infected blood and by feeding 

 experimental animals upon the dejecta of birds suffering from the disease. Under 

 ordinary natural conditions the disease is spread by a tick [ A rgas persicus (and in 

 laboratory experiments by A. reflexus and Ornithodoros moubata) Marchoux and 



Salimbeni, Nuttall, Balfour, Greig.] Ticks may 

 harbour the parasites for 5 months [or more]. 



In the external media the Spirochsetes lose their 



vitality in 48 hours. 



^ Morphology. To obtain the best preparations 



') Borrel advises defibrinating the infected blood 



and then centrifuging it. The Spirochsetes which 



f -" will be found in the upper layers should then be 



washed and centrifuged several times and drops 

 ^ of the last washings spread on slides mordanted 

 ^ ; with tannate of iron and stained with fuchsin 



; (P. isi). 



^ In these preparations long flagella will be found 



^^j all over the bodies of the parasites and especially 



^^ at one end, the other end being as a rule non- 



ciliated ; the short forms have only the terminal 



FIG. 343. Spirochceta marchouxi. tuft of flagella. Some of the parasites seem to 

 Irishman's stain, x 1000. have a long flagellum at one or at both ends (cf. 



ante). 



Multiplication takes place by transverse division. [According to Nuttall 

 spirochsetes divide by longitudinal division. ] 



Cultures. Borrel and Burnet succeeded in obtaining freely growing cultures but 

 were unable to propagate them beyond the second generation. The medium used 

 was citrated fowl blood or serum obtained by defibrinating and centrifuging the 

 blood. Levaditi was able to grow the spirochsetes in collodion sacs in the peritoneal 

 cavities of guinea-pigs using fowl serum as the culture medium. 



[By adopting the method employed for the cultivation of the human 

 blood-inhabiting spirochsetes (p. 716) Noguchi has been able to grow 

 S. marchouxi outside the body. ] 



Immunity. A first attack always confers immunity. Animals may be artificially 

 immunized by inoculating them with blood containing spirochsetes after it has been 

 kept for 2-4 days or heated to 55 C. for 10 minutes. Serum from blood recently 

 collected from birds suffering from the disease filtered through a Berkefeld bougie 

 has similar immunizing properties. 



