Attempted Transmission of Theileria gorgonis, Brocklesby & Vidler 1961, from Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) to Cattle

Abstract

Four blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), two from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and two from the Athi/Kapiti Plains m Kenya, were splenectomied. Of the two wildebeest from Tanzania, one which had previously had detectable intra-erythrocytic piroplasms of Theileria gorgonis, had an increase in parasitaemia to a peak of 7%, the other, which had previously had no detectable parasites, developed a low-level parasitaemia. The two wildebeest from Kenya had severely exacerbated T. gorgonis infections all in one case a concomitant Anaplasma marginale infection They died of severe anaemia after febrile responses and theilenal parasitaemias in excess of 70%. Attempts to transmit T. gorgonis to spienectomised calves by blood passage and to steer~ via Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks failed despite the establishment of the parasite in the ticks. A. marginale, on the other hand, was blood-passaged to two of the splenectomised calves, which were inoculated with blood from the infected wildebeest.