leishmanias of Neotropical Porcupines : Leishmania hertigi deanei novo subsp

Abstract these cultures into hamsters produced relatively short-term infections in which small A leishmanial parasite was isolated from 11 of f . b . 18 . f th I f P t d numbers O parasltes could e seen In smears porcupmes Tom e genera area o on a e ... Pedras, Island of Maraj6, Pará State, north Brazil. from the slte of Inoculatlon for only a few Two of the infected animaIs were identified as weeks. They could be demonstrated for ionger Coendou prehensilis (Linnaeus), and the other 9 are periods by the culture of skin from the point of considered as a hitherto undescribed species of inoculation, on rare occasions Up to one year Coendou. The organism is clearly related to L. later. No parasites were found elsewhere in hertigi Herrer, of the Panamanian porcupine C. ... th h OId O Th b t h I . I I . I the skln or vlscera of the Infected hamsters. ro sc 1 1 ornas, u morp o oglca, gero oglca and biochemical differences necessitate taxonomic The incidence of infection in the Panamadistinction. The Brazilian parasite is therefore nian porcupines was very high, with 83 (88%) named Leishmania hertigi deanei novo subsp., in of 94 specimens positive. The infection was ~o~our' of ~r. Leonida~ ~ane ~hO. first recor~e~ cons~dered to be of long duration and confiro lt m porcupmes from Plaul, Brazll. Like L. h. hertlgl, ' .. L. h. deanei produces no visible pathological effects med 'to be up to 30 months In one captlve in its natural host. Scanty amastigotes are animal. scattered, often singlY, throughout the skin and in Herrer gave a new specific name to the the viscera; usually they can be detected only after parasite Leishmania hertigi on the grounds of the in vitro culture of tissues in blood-agar medium, ' h .f ..' .. . h. h L h d o d.l Att t t ItS apparent ost-specl IClty In nature, fallure m W lC ..eanel grows rea 1 y. emp s o infect hamsters and a uinea-pig with amastigote of Intectlon In hamsters to protect these


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We were unable to determine the exact leishmanias the cultural forms mar differ connature of -the parasitized cell, for ali the amas-siderably from the various devei;opmental tigotes seen in smears were extracellular and stages seen in the sandfly vector.
no clear association of parasite and host cell The flagellates from 6-14 day-old cultures was apparent in sections.
On no occasion was showed such a diversity of form that it is the organism seen to provoke any host cellular doubtful if average measurements of even a reaction.
The TAXONOMY: Failure to establish either attached hindgut or foregut developmental stages in sandflies (Anon., 1967;Lainson, et ai., 1977) and characteristic biochemical features (Chance, et aI., 1974;Gardener, et ai., 1974) precludes the inclusion of L. hertigi in either the L. braziliensis or L. mexicana complexes: it was thus removed to a group on its own (Lainson, et ai., 1977).L. hertigi hertigi and L.

DISCUSSION
The average measurements of the amastigotes described by Deane, et ai., (1974) in the porcupines from Piauí were 6.1 x 3.4 Jl.m -so similar to our own measurements of 6.1 x 3.7 Jl.m that there can be little doubt that these authors were algo dealing with L. h.deanei.They described two other characteristics which agree with our own observations; namely the highly vacuolated nature of the cytoplasm.and the elongated form of the kinetoplast, which has the form of a small curved rodo Leishmanias of Neotropical Figs.12-13.Leishmania hertigi deanei novo subsp.12, valiety of dividing and non-divided promastigotes seen in a 10-day-old blood-agar culture.13, amastigotes in liver and spleen smears of Coendou sp.Giemsa.Fig. 14.Leishmania hertigi hertigi: amastigotes in skin smears of Coendou rothschildi (reproduced, at same scale, from Herrer, 1971).Note much smaller size, lack of vacuoles in cytoplasm, and different form of kinetoplast Amastigotes of L. h.deanei would thus appear to be morpholoQically distinct from those of L. h.hertigi, in their respective porcupine hosts.
, except that we dispensed with the overnight incubation of skin-snips in Triturates of -Personal communication, Dr. C. O. H'andley, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. See, algo, Pine, R. H. (1973): we understand that a description of the animal is in press.52 -Lainson & Sbaw ~Figs.1-11.Leismania hertigi deanei novo subsp.1-5, amastigotes in impression smears of liver and spleen of Coendou sp., from Pará State, north Brazil: Giemsa.6-7, sections of skin from the tail of the same animal showing amastigotes scattered in the upper dermis: formol-salin3 fixation, haematoxylin & eosin.8-11, cultural forms; showing rounded and elongate dividing stages, and long and short promastigotes.matly and intraperitoneally into hamsters in 1-5, 13) were seen in the liver and spleen of one attempts to infect them with the porcupine animal (Coendou novo sp.): microscopic demonof the skin of the same pensions of promastigotes.animal (Figs. 6 & 7).These showed extremely scanty, single parasites scattered throughout the upper dermis and usually Iying in a small RESULTS vacuole.In section the amastigotes appeared much smaller than those in the liver and spleen Promastigote flagellates grew luxuriantly smears (Figs.1-7).doubtless due to shrinkage in cultures from 11 of the 18 porcupines, inparasite was isolated only from the skin; in similar size difference in sections and sme3.rs 2 cases from the skin and viscera; and in 1, only was noted for L. hertigi of the Panamanian from the viscera.Scanty 2.mastigotes (Figs.