IDENTIFICATION OF TRYPANOSOMA BRUCEI GAMBIENSE IN LIBERIAN PIGS AND DOGS BY ISOENZYMES AND BY RESISTANCE TO HUMAN-PLASMA

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 29  (3) , 335-345
Abstract
Trypanozoan stocks (29) from Liberian pigs and dogs were screened for human plasma resistance and electrophoretic isoenzyme patterns of 11 enzymes. Two stocks from pigs were resistant to human plasma and had an isoenzyme marker, a slow alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) pattern, previously found only in T. brucei gambiense from man. The pig is probably a reservoir of human trypanosomiasis in West Africa. The T. b. gambiense ALAT was found in stocks from 5 other pigs and a dog, but none of these was resistant to human plasma; conversely, 9 further isolations from pigs and 2 from dogs were plasma resistant but did not have the T. b. gambiense ALAT. The lack of correspondence between the 2 characteristics is discussed. A T. b. gambiense stock from man in Zaire had the ALAT pattern characteristic of T. b. gambiense from Senegal and Nigeria, together with the ASAT [aspartate aminotransferase] triplet found in most T. b. gambiense stocks. Peptidase polymorphism was shown in trypanosomes for the 1st time.