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Babesia rodhaini infections in the rat after acute primary parasitaemia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

R. S. Phillips
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Cambridge*

Extract

Babesia rodhaini remains in the blood of most rats from 2 to 12 months after the acute primary parasitaemia has subsided. By analogy with some trypanosome and malaria infections it is suggested that piroplasms may have the capacity for antigenic variation, thus allowing the parasite to survive in the host for so long albeit as a chronic infection. A population of B. rodhaini was isolated which was considerably less sensitive in passive transfer experiments to two pools of serum from recovered rats than the normal passage population.

I thank Dr S. F. Barnett for his advice during the work and Dr F. Hawking and my colleagues at Mill Hill for criticizing the manuscript. This work was carried out during the tenure of an Agricultural Research Council Studentship.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

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