Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T02:47:47.702Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Behaviour of Balantidium coli Malm. in Cultures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

A. Pringle Jameson
A. Pringle Jameson
Affiliation:
(From the Institute of Animal Pathology, Cambridge.)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Balantidium coli (from the domestic pig) can be readily cultivated in the medium devised by Dobell and Laidlaw (1926) for the cultivation of entozoic amoebae (inspissated horse-serum and Ringer-eggwhite, with solid rice-starch). If the hydrogen-ion concentration does not exceed the limits p H = 5·4–8·0, rich cultures can be obtained in this medium, at 37° C.; and strains of the ciliate can be readily propagated for any desired period if subcultures are made every 3–5 days.

In such cultures conjugation occurs periodically; but encystation has never been observed, and all attempts to induce it under cultural conditions have hitherto failed.

The conjugation of Balantidium, as seen in cultures, is peculiar, but it has been impossible as yet to elucidate all details of the process. Conjugants are always much smaller than non-conjugants, and frequently unequal in size. Apparently but one conjugant is fertilised, and survives as an exconjugant—the partner dying after separation.

Encystation has never been seen to follow conjugation, as described by Brumpt (1909).

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1927 , pp. 411 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1927

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barret, H. P. and Yarbrough, N. (1921). A method for the cultivation of Balantidium coli. Amer. J. Trop. Med. 1, 161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boeck, W. C. and Drbohlav, J. (1925). The cultivation of Endameba histolytica. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. Washington, 11, 235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brumpt, E. (1909). Démonstration du rôle pathogène du Balantidium coli et conjugaison de cet infusoire. C. R. Soc. Biol. 67, 103.Google Scholar
Corbet, A. S. and Jameson, A. P. (1927). The toxicity of phenylarsinic acids for Balantidium coli Malm, in cultures, in relation to their chemical constitution. Biochem. J. 21, 986.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dobell, C. and Laidlaw, P. P. (1926). On the cultivation of Entamoeba histolytica and some other entozoic amoebae. Parasitology, 18, 283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jameson, A. P. (1926). A ciliate, Buxtonella sulcata n.g., n.sp., from the caecum of cattle. Parasitology p. 182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. D. (1922). On Balantidium coli (Malmsten) and Balantidium suis (sp.nov.) with an account of their neuromotor apparatus. Univ. California Publ. Zool. 20, 243.Google Scholar
Reis, van der (1923). Ueber die Bakterienflora des Darms (Balantidium coli und Dünndarmbesiedlung). München. med. Wochenschr. 70, 835.Google Scholar
Walker, E. L. (1913). Quantitative determination of the balantidicidal activity of certain drugs and chemicals as a basis for the treatment of infections with Balantidium coli. Philippine J. Sci. (B, Trop. Med.) 8, 1.Google Scholar