Experiments to ascertain if antelope may act as a reservoir of the virus of sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma gambiense) / by Sir David Bruce, A.E. Hamerton and H.R. Bateman.

  • David Bruce
Date:
1911]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments to ascertain if antelope may act as a reservoir of the virus of sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma gambiense) / by Sir David Bruce, A.E. Hamerton and H.R. Bateman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would be almost impossible to check, owing to the difficult nature of the forested and elephant-grass country which in so many parts borders the Uganda shores of the Lake. Game laws would require modification, and the destruction of the game in the neighbourhood of the lakes and palpalis- frequented rivers would become a factor in the control of Sleeping Sickness. To answer the above queries the following experiments were devised and carried out :— 1. Can Antelope be Infected with Sleeping Sickness by the Bites of Laboratory- bred and Laboratory-infected Glossina palpalis ? Eleven buck in all were employed in this experiment. Four bush-buck (Tragelaphus sylvatica ?), six reed-buck (Cervicapra arundinacea), and one water-buck (Cobus defassa). Other buck, such as “ oribi” (Cephalophus grimmi) and “ entalaganya” (Cephalophus equatorialis), were obtained by the Commission, but did not survive long in captivity. As each buck arrived its blood was usually injected, subcutaneously, into monkeys or rats, to ascertain if the blood was naturally infected with trypano- somes. The method then adopted in each case to infect the antelope with Sleeping Sickness was as follows: A cage of clean* laboratory-bred Glossina palpalis was fed on a monkey known to be infected with a human strain of Trypanosoma gambiense. This cage of artificially-infected flies was then fed on healthy animals until one of the animals (monkeys) became infected with Sleeping Sickness. Having proved that the flies were infective, the cage of flies was then fed, about five minutes daily, for several days, on one or other of the buck. The buck’s blood was then examined daily for trypanosomes, and was further tested for Sleeping Sickness by its inoculation into monkeys or rats. The experiments follow in full detail. Experiment 2328. Bush-buck. This bush-buck was fed on for five days (March 24, 25, 26, 28, and 29, 1910) by laboratory-bred Glossina palpalis which were known to be infected with a human strain of Trypanosoma gambiense. On April 8, 15 days after the first feed of the infected flies on this buck, 5 c.c. of the buck’s blood were injected, subcutaneously, into a healthy monkey. April 19, monkey showed 7rypanosoma gambiense in its blood. The trypanosomes were verified by examination in fresh and stained preparations of the blood. Result.— Positive. Remarks.—The preliminary inoculation of the blood into susceptible animals, to * The word “clean,” applied here and throughout this paper to laboratory-bred Glossina palpalis, means flies which have newly hatched out from pup in the laboratory and have never fed.
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