The Susceptibility of the Higher Primates to Piroplasms

SYNOPSIS. The chimpanzee is shown to behave like man to infection with Babesia divergens or bovis: the intact animal is totally resistant, whereas the splenectomized animal develops a fulminating infection accompanied by blackwater. The splenectomized rhesus monkey reacts in the same way also, but splenectomized rabbits are insusceptible. In the chimpanzee the typical accolé position of the “divergens” organisms (as seen in cattle) is absent, but occurs in the rhesus. It is suggested that latent piroplasmosis in man may exist on a large scale in rural populations in infected localities.