Notes on Sarcosporidia of Birds in Panama

Abstract

in the present study. These infected birds were found in a lot of 36 specimens, representing 21 species, examined for Sarcocystis. They were collected in 1952-53 from areas of Panama near the Canal Zone, while the writer was at the Gorgas Hospital Laboratory. Each bird was examined for intestinal and blood parasites. Blocks of tissue routinely were cut from the vital organs and muscle and preserved in 10% formalin for the later preparation of sections which were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Generally, Sarcocystis infection was noted only during the microscopic examination of striated muscle sections. However, the sarcocysts in the collared aricari were seen while the bird was being skinned. In the one infected aricari of the 4 examined, the back, breast, thigh, and neck nmuscles of the bird contained numerous elongated yellow capsules which were 1 to 1.5 mm long and about half as wide. Some of the capsules were removed, ruptured, and the contents stained with Giemsa's stain after heat fixation. Bananashaped sporozoites, 3 to 4.5 microns long and about 1 micron wide, with subterminal nuclei were demonstrated. In longitudinal sections, the largest sarcocyst was 1.23 mm long and 0.339 mm wide at the point of greatest diameter. The cysts were oval in shape and bounded by a thin membranous wall. Many sarcocysts were measured which ranged from 0.462 to 0.678 mm long and 0.123 to 0.354 mm wide. There was also a large number of very much smaller cysts ranging from 0.046 to 0.154 mm in length and 0.031 to 0.092 mm in width. The large cysts, those over 0.3 mm in diameter, were divided into numerous honeycomb-like chambers at the central portion of the cyst, the Kammerung of Miescher. The central chambers were free of sporozoites and contained only a few scattered ovoid bodies, 2.2 to 4.5 microns in diameter which stained pale pink with eosin. Sporozoites were densely packed into similar chambers in the peripheral portions of the sarcocysts. The Sarcocystis parasitizing the aricari produced marked distortion of the infected muscle fibers. There was no evidence of tissue reaction to the parasites in