FAMILY RICKETTSIACEAE 



1095 



cellularly in the region of the epithelial 

 lining of the gut of the louse. 



Cultivation: Has not been cultivated 

 in tissue culture or any cell-free medium, 

 though Rickettsia pediculi, considered by 

 some identical with Rickettsia quintana, 

 has been cultivated on human and horse 

 blood agar. 



Pathogenicity : Pathogenic for man, 

 causing recurrent fever. No strain has 

 been definitely established in laboratory 

 animals. 



Immunology : Partial immunity is pro- 

 duced after an attack of the disease. 

 The disease is characterized by relapses 

 which may occur as long as two years 

 after the initial attack. 



Distinctive characteristics: The or- 

 ganism resists a temperature of 60°C 

 moist heat for 30 minutes or a dry heat 

 at 80°C for 20 minutes. It resists desic- 

 cation in sunlight for 4 months. It is 

 filterable under certain conditions but 

 not when in plasma or serum. It is 

 present in filtrates of infected vaccine 

 sediments and excrements of infected 

 lice. 



Source : Seen in lice fed on trench 

 fever patients by Topfer (Miinch. med. 

 Wchnschr., 61, 1916, 1495). 



Habitat: The epithelial lining of the 

 gut of the body louse (Pediculus humanus 

 var. corporis) where they occur extra- 

 cellularly, and Pedicuhis capitis. The 

 virus is not transmissible through the 

 ova. May be the etiological agent of 

 trench fever (Wolhynian fever, shin 

 bone fever, five-day fever). 



Appendix II : Additional named species 

 are included in Chapter V, Rickettsiae, 

 in Steinhaus, Insect Microbiology. 

 Ithaca, 1946, 304-328. Some differ 

 morphologically and tinctorially from 

 typical rickettsiae, some are not asso- 

 ciated with an arthropod vector, some 

 have been incompletely studied and 

 described, some have been cultivated in 

 cell-free media. Pending the completion 

 of further studies involving possible 



cultivation in fertile eggs, the determina- 

 tion of biological properties, and ade- 

 quate comparative immunological and 

 serological studies, no attempt is made 

 to classify these organisms. The de- 

 scriptions are condensed from those given 

 by Steinhaus : 



Ehrlichia (Rickettsia) kurlovi Mosh- 

 kovsky. (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 

 126, 1937, 379; Ehrlichia kurlovi Mosh- 

 kovsky, Uspekhi Souremennoi Biologii 

 (Russian) (Advances in Modern Bi- 

 ology), 19, 1945, 12.) Found in the 

 monocytes of guinea pigs. Described by 

 Kurloff in 1889 as inclusions in the mono- 

 nuclear cells of guinea pigs and other 

 animals. These became known as Kur- 

 loff bodies. However, the parasitism of 

 these bodies is questionable. 



Rickettsia avium Carpano. (Riv. Pat. 

 Comp., Jan .-Feb., 1936, 1.) Minute 

 bodies in the leucocytes and tissue cells 

 of a bullfinch {Pyrrhula europea) brought 

 to Egypt from Germany. Donatien 

 and Lestoquard (Arch. Inst. Pasteur 

 Algerie, 15, 1937, 142) suggested that this 

 organism might have been that of psitta- 

 cosis. 



Rickettsia bovis Donatien and Lesto- 

 quard. (Donatien and Lestoquard, Bull. 

 Soc. Path. Exot., 29, 1936, 1057; Ehrlichia 

 bovis Moshkovsky, Uspekhi Souremen- 

 noi Biologii (Russian) (Advances in 

 Modern Biology), 19, 1945, 18.) Con- 

 cerned in a disease of cattle which is 

 transmitted by an unidentified tick of 

 the genus Hyalomma. The organism 

 occurs in circular or round-angled poly- 

 gonal masses which consist of a large 

 number of tightly pressed, minute 

 spherical granulations. These masses 

 are situated in the cytoplasm of various 

 monocytes. The organism causes a rela- 

 tively light febrile disease in cattle, and 

 an inapparent infection in sheep and 

 fever in monkeys. 



Rickettsia canis Donatien and Lesto- 

 quard. (Donatien and Lestoquard, Bull. 

 Soc. Path. Exot., 28, 1935, 418; Ehrlichia 

 (Rickettsia) canis Moshkovsky, Compt. 



