FAMILY BARTONELLACEAE 



1103 



1. Haemobartonella muris (Mayer) 

 Tyzzer and Weinman. {Bartonella 

 muris Mayer, Arch, f . Schiffs.- u. Tropen- 

 hyg., 35, 1921, 151; Bartonella muris 

 ratti Regendanz and Kikuth, Compt. 

 rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 98, 1928, 1578; 

 Tyzzer and Weinman, Amer. Jour. Hj'g., 

 50(B), 1939, 143.) From Latin mus, 

 muris, mouse. 



Slender rods with rounded ends, fre- 

 quently showing granules or swellings at 

 one or both extremities, and dumbbell, 

 coccoid or diplococcoid forms. May oc- 

 cur individually, in pairs, or in short 

 chains of 3 or 4 elements, and, when 

 abundant, in parallel grouping. The 

 rods measure 0.1 by 0.7 to 1.3 microns 

 and as much as half the length of a red 

 cell. The coccoids have a diameter of 

 0.1 to 0.2 micron. 



They have been found on and in the 

 erythrocytes and in the plasma. Pre- 

 ferred stains are those of the Roman- 

 owsky type. With Giemsa's stain 

 various investigators report an intense 

 red coloration, a bluish tinge with dis- 

 tinct pink shading, blue with purple 

 granules. With Wright's stain, the or- 

 ganisms stain bluish, with reddish gran- 

 ules at the ends. With Schilling's me- 

 thylene blue-eosin stain the organisms 

 stain a bright red color with the erythro- 

 cyte staining blue. They stain faintly 

 with Manson's stain, pyronin-methyl 

 green and fuchsin. Gram-negative. 



There is lack of agreement concerning 

 visibility in the fresh state and motility. 

 Various authors report Brownian move- 

 ment, slow and sinuous motion in the 

 red cell or rapid motion. 



Cultivation: Cultivated with difficulty 

 and divergent results have been reported. 

 Growth on various media reported (blood 

 agar, agar with 2 per cent defibrinated 

 rat blood, horse blood agar, N. N. X., 

 Blutrosplatte of Wethmar, hormone agar 

 with blood of rabbit, horse or man, asci- 

 tic 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 usu- 

 ally growth was scant or could not be 

 continued by transfer to the same me- 

 dium or the organism isolated was non- 

 infectious or the possibility of latent 

 infections in the animal was not excluded. 

 Best results are apparently obtained with 

 semi-solid rabbit serum agar and semi- 

 solid rabbit blood agar. 



No conclusive results have been re- 

 ported in tissue culture. The organism 

 has been cultivated on the chorio-allan- 

 toic membrane of the chick embryo. 



Filterability : Non-filterable with Seitz 

 or Berkefeld N filters. 



Immunology : No authentic case of 

 true natural immunity in rats has been 

 established. Acquired immunity occurs 

 in (1) the latently-infected rat, (2) the 

 infected rat after splenectomy and re- 

 covery from the disease, the period of 

 resistance corresponding to the duration 

 of latency, (3) the non-splenectomized 

 non-carrier rat following infection, (4) 

 animals other than the rat following in- 

 fection. 



Serology : No precipitins, thrombocj'to- 

 barin, isoagglutinins, or cold hemolysins 

 have been reported in the serum of ane- 

 mic rats. Complement deviation and 

 agglutination have been reported with 

 sera from rabbits, rats and guinea pigs 

 injected Avith cultures. Rabbits im- 

 munized with cultures have given posi- 

 tive Weil-Felix reactions with Proteus 

 0X19 and OXK and rat sera recovered 

 from haemobartonellosis have given a 

 positive Weil-Felix reaction and positive 

 agglutination in low dilution with Rickett- 

 sia prowazekii. 



Pathogenicity : Infected blood, liver 

 suspension, defibrinated laked blood, 

 washed red cells, plasma and hemoglo- 

 binuric urine may produce infection by 

 the subcutaneous, intravenous, intra- 

 peritoneal or intracardiac routes. Slight, 

 transient or no haemobartonellosis oc- 

 curs in adult non-splenectomized haemo- 

 bartonella-free albino rats, adult 

 non-splenectomized albino rats of carrier 

 stock, adult splenectomized rats pre- 



