The Hosts of Plasmodium brasilianum Gonder and von Berenberg-Gossler, 1908

Abstract

The host-parasite records for the malaria parasites of Neotropical subhuman primates are reviewed, and new positive and negative records are added for 275 Peruvian and Colombian animals. Forty, or about 15% of the 275, were found infected with P. brasilianum or plasmodia probably belonging to this species. P. simium was not identified in the survey reported here. New host records for P. brasilianum are as follows: Saimiri boliviensis, Cebus albifrons, Cebus apella (probable), Ateles paniscus, and Lagothrix infumata. It is shown that P. brasilianum is probably restricted, in nature, to the members of the family Cebidae. Man has not been infected experimentally (at least to date), and natural infections in the marmosets (Hapalidae) have never been recorded. The discovery in 1960 that several strains or subspecies of Plasmodium cynomolgi of Asiatic macaques are transmissible to man by mosquitoes has led to extensive new studies of subhuman primate malaria in several parts of the world (Eyles et al., 1960). The plasmodia of primates of the Oriental zoogeographical region have naturally received particular attention; new interest has also been shown in the plasmodia of African and Neotropical primates. With this reawakening of interest in mind, it may be appropriate to record our findings in recent surveys of Peruvian and Colombian monkeys and marmosets for blood parasites, and at the same time to review briefly the present knowledge of the host distribution of the Neotropical subhuman primate plasmodia. METHODS: THE SURVEY An earlier paper in this series on Neotropical primate endoparasites describes the methods of the survey in detail (Dunn and Lambrecht, in press). During the period December 1960 through October 1962, 275 newly imported Peruvian and Colombian monkeys and marmosets were examined for blood parasites in San Francisco. Blood specimens were taken from the animals within a few days of their arrival in San Francisco; in all cases they came to the United States by air in mosquitoscreened cages. Most of the animals had been captured less than 2 weeks before they arrived in California. One or more pairs of thick and thin blood films were taken from each animal. The films were fixed with May-Greenwald, stained with Giemsa at pH 7.1, and carefully examined for plasmodia, trypanosomes, and microfilariae. The filarial findings have been discussed elsewhere (Dunn and Lambrecht, in press) and a study of the trypanosomes is in preparation; studies of several intestinal helminths have also been reported (Dunn, 1961, 1962).