Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T15:58:16.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A microscopic study of Pasteurella tularensis in the human body louse*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Roger D. Price
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology and Economic Zoology, University of Minnesota, St Paul

Extract

1. P. tularensis may be abundant in the midgut lumen, the epithelial cells of the anterior third of the midgut, and the haemolymph of the louse. Multiplication is extracellular in the lumen and the haemolymph and intracytoplasmic in the gut cells.

2. The multiplication of the tularemia organisms in the midgut epithelium eventually leads to the disruption of these cells and the break-through of the organisms into the body cavity. The growth of these organisms in the haemocoele results in the death of the louse in 4–7 days.

3. Lice vary greatly in their susceptibility to infection. Some lice show complete resistance to infection; others are capable of retaining the infection essentially for their normal life span, i.e. 35 days; still others apparently succumb to a rapid increase of the organisms in a relatively brief time after infection.

4. The behaviour of P. tularensis within the louse presents interesting similarities to infection of lice with the rickettsiae pathogenic to humans.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1957

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

Bliss, C. I. & Calhoun, D. W. (1954). An Outline of Biometry. New Haven: Yale Co-operative Corp.Google Scholar
Dillon, L. S. (1954). Some notes on preparing whole insects for sectioning. Ent. News, 65, 6770.Google Scholar
Downs, C. M., Coriell, L. L., Chapman, S. S.Klauber, A. (1947). The cultivation of Bacterium tularense in embryonated eggs. J. Bact. 53, 89100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Francis, E. (1927). Microscopic changes of tularaemia in the tick Dermacentor andersoni and the bedbug Cimex lectularius. Publ. Hlth Rep. 42, 2763–72.Google Scholar
Lee, A. B. (1950). The Microtomist's Vade-mecum. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Co.Google Scholar
Price, R. D. (1954). The survival of Bacterium tularense in lice and louse feces. Amer. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 3, 179–86.Google Scholar
Price, R. D. (1956). The multiplication of Pasteuretta tularensis in human body lice. Amer. J. Hyg. 63, 186–97.Google ScholarPubMed
Priman, J. (1954). Blood serum as an adhesive for paraffin sections. Stain Tech. 29, 105–7.Google Scholar
Sikora, H. (1916). Beiträge zur Anatomie, Physiologie u. Biologie der Kleiderlaus (Pediculus vestimenti Nitzsch). I. Anatomie des Verdauungstraktes. Arch. Schiffs- u. Tropenhyg. 20, 176.Google Scholar
Snyder, J. C. & Wheeler, C. M. (1945). The experimental infection of the human body louse, Pediculus humanus corporis, with murine and epidemic louse-borne typhus strains. J. Exp. Med. 82, 120.Google Scholar
Solomon, M. E. (1951). Control of humidity with potassium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and other solutions. Bull. Ent. Res. 42, 543–54.Google Scholar
Stiles, K. A. (1934). Normal butyl alcohol technique for animal tissues with special reference to insects. Stain Tech. 9, 97100.Google Scholar
Weyer, F. (1950). Beobachtungen bei intracölomaler Infektion von Läusen mit Rickettsien. Z. Tropenmed. u. Parasit. 2, 4051.Google Scholar
Weyer, F. (1952). Künstliche Übertragung von Rickettsia rickettsii auf Insekten, insbesondere auf Kleiderläuse. Z. Hyg. InfektKr. 135, 280–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyer, F. (1953 a). Künstliche Infektion der Kleiderlaus mit Rickettsia tsutsugamushi. Z. Hyg. InfektKr. 137, 419–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weyer, F. (1953 b). Die Beziehungen des Q-Fieber-Erregers (Rickettsia burneti) zu Arthropoden. Z. Tropenmed. u. Parasit. 4, 344–82.Google Scholar
Weyer, F. (1954). Vergleichende Untersuchungen über das Verhalten verschiedener Rickettsien-Arten in der Kleiderlaus. Acta Tropica, 11, 193221.Google Scholar