Observations on a <i>Bodo</i>-like flagellate persistently occurring in the faeces of a human being

Gupta, B. M. Das; Chatterjee, Helen J.

doi:10.1017/s0031182000010829

Cited by 3 publications

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“…The repeated demonstration in 1938 of a Bodo -like flagellate in the feces of a patient in Calcutta that thrived under culture conditions at 37°C has also been reported. 4 It remains unclear whether these historical reports of Bodo -like flagellates all represent descriptions of the same organism or encompass a complex of closely related cryptic species (i.e., one or more of which is parasitic and the rest free-living). Such variability would be consistent with the multiple transitions to obligate parasitism observed within closely related Kinetoplastea species.…”

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Identification ofParabodo caudatus(classKinetoplastea) in urine voided from a dog with hematuria

et al. 2014

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A voided urine sample, obtained from a 13-year-old intact male dog residing in a laboratory animal research facility, was observed to contain biflagellate protozoa 5 days following an episode of gross hematuria. The protozoa were identified as belonging to the class Kinetoplastea on the basis of light microscopic observation of Wright-Giemsa-stained urine sediment in which the kinetoplast was observed basal to 2 anterior flagella. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using primers corresponding with conserved regions within the 18S ribosomal RNA gene of representative kinetoplastid species identified nucleotide sequences with 100% identity to Parabodo caudatus. Parabodo caudatus organisms were unable to be demonstrated cytologically or by means of PCR in samples collected from the dog's environment. The dog had a history of 50 complete urinalyses performed over the 12-year period preceding detection of P. caudatus, and none of these were noted to contain protozoa. Moreover, the gross hematuria that was documented 5 days prior to detection of P. caudatus had never before been observed in this dog. Over the ensuing 2.5 years of the dog's life, 16 additional complete urinalyses were performed, none of which revealed the presence of protozoa. Bodonids are commonly found in soil as well as in freshwater and marine environments. However, P. caudatus, in particular, has a 150-year-long, interesting, and largely unresolved history in people as either an inhabitant or contaminant of urine. This historical conundrum is revisited in the current description of P. caudatus as recovered from the urine of a dog.

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Identification ofParabodo caudatus(classKinetoplastea) in urine voided from a dog with hematuria

et al. 2014

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“…Therefore, in the absence of known transovarial transmission of Bodonidae in ticks, the most likely source of bodonid DNA detected here in obligatorily haematophagous bat ectoparasites is the blood of their bat hosts. If so, this phenomenon is not completely new, because free-living species of bodonids were reported to occur in the urine and faeces of various mammals other than bats (Das Gupta and Chatterjee, 1938;Vandersea et al, 2015). In addition, bodonid DNA was repeatedly detected in blood samples obtained from ungulates (Auty et al, 2012;Jan Votýpka, unpublished data).…”

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DNA of free-living bodonids (Euglenozoa: Kinetoplastea) in bat ectoparasites: potential relevance to the evolution of parasitic trypanosomatids

Szőke

Sándor

Boldogh

et al. 2017

Acta Veterinaria Hungarica

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Kinetoplastids are flagellated protozoa, including principally free-living bodonids and exclusively parasitic trypanosomatids. In the most species-rich genus, Trypanosoma, more than thirty species were found to infect bats worldwide. Bat trypanosomes are also known to have played a significant role in the evolution of T. cruzi, a species with high veterinary medical significance. Although preliminary data attested the occurrence of bat trypanosomes in Hungary, these were never sought for with molecular methods. Therefore, amplification of an approx. 900-bp fragment of the 18S rRNA gene of kinetoplastids was attempted from 307 ixodid and 299 argasid ticks collected from bats, and from 207 cimicid bugs collected from or near bats in Hungary and Romania. Three samples, one per each bat ectoparasite group, were PCR positive. Sequencing revealed the presence of DNA from free-living bodonids (Bodo saltans and neobodonids), but no trypanosomes were detected. The most likely source of bodonid DNA detected here in engorged bat ectoparasites is the blood of their bat hosts. However, how bodonids were acquired by bats, can only be speculated. Bats are known to drink from

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The Bionomics of Coprophilic Protozoa

Watson

1946

Biological Reviews

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Summary The coprophilic Protozoa are forms capable of living in faeces. They form a loose ecological group of considerable practical and economic importance. The development of the conception of coprophilic Protozoa is traced in the article, and it is shown that at first they were frequently confused with or taken for parasitic species, many of them being considered as pathogenic. Further research showed that they were in reality free‐living species which had become adapted to life in dung. The faecal environment is peculiar in being characterized by abundance of decaying organic matter, vast numbers of bacteria with eonsequent restriction of free oxygen, and restriction of fluid to small pockets and channels between the solid particles. Hence the only Protozoa able to live in undiluted faeces are polysaprobic species whose methods of locomotion permit them to move in restricted volumes of fluid or in a viscous medium. Some coprophilic Protozoa are holozoic, while others are saprozoic. Most of them flourish best at low temperatures, but they are tolerant of wide variation in the hydrogen‐ion concentration of the medium and can withstand temporary deficiency of oxygen and abnormally high concentrations of carbon dioxide. They are all well adapted to withstand desiccation by anabiosis or cyst formation. Although they can live and multiply in normal faeces so long as they remain sufficiently moist, many of them are not able to survive in pathological faeces from cases of diarrhoea and dysentery. The factors inhibiting growth in this medium are the presence of drugs, or of unaltered bile salts, an unusually high osmotic pressure, or the admixture of urine with the fluid stool. The presence of mucus in the faeces, on the other hand, is favourable to the growth of coprophilic Protozoa. Although urine is lethal to the active forms, it probably does not act as an important limiting factor in nature, since with normal faeces it merely bathes the surface and does not become admixed to any extent. A classified list is given of all the Protozoa reported from human and animal faeces. While the drying up of the faeces leads to the disappearance of active Protozoa, the dilution of the faeces artificially or by rain leads to the development of a succession of forms analogous to that which takes place in a hay infusion or in the waters of a polluted river during self‐purification. Coprophilic Protozoa may be classified, according to their degree of adaptation, into three groups, namely: (a) Oligocoprophilic forms, able to live in faeces only after dilution; (b) Mesocoprophilic forms, able to live in some undiluted faeces, especially if of loose consistency, but flourishing only after dilution; (c) Polycoprophilic forms, able to flourish in undiluted normal faeces. The medical and veterinary importance of the coprophilic Protozoa lies in the possibility of confusing them with or taking them for true parasitic forms. Some of the classical cases of pseudo‐parasitism, due to this cause, are described. Coprophilic Protozoa gain access...

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Observations on a Bodo-like flagellate persistently occurring in the faeces of a human being

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Identification ofParabodo caudatus(classKinetoplastea) in urine voided from a dog with hematuria

Identification ofParabodo caudatus(classKinetoplastea) in urine voided from a dog with hematuria

DNA of free-living bodonids (Euglenozoa: Kinetoplastea) in bat ectoparasites: potential relevance to the evolution of parasitic trypanosomatids

The Bionomics of Coprophilic Protozoa

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