Spontaneous Amebic Dysentery in Monkeys

Abstract

This article records a spontaneous outbreak of a disease in monkeys in which the lesions corresponded closely to those found in amebic or tropical dysentery in man, and in which protozoal organisms occurred that had the structure and characteristics of those amebas generally considered the causative agents in human tropical dysentery. This spontaneous outbreak of amebic dysentery is of special interest since there appears to be no record of a similar case, and because our knowledge of this disease in animals is very meager. It is probable that the affection was introduced with one or several of the imported monkeys, and conveyed to the healthy individuals kept in the same cage. The possibility of transmission of the ameba to human beings through such sources must be given cognizance, and, furthermore, our findings suggest that at times imported animals might be carriers of the parasites without disclosing any clinical evidence. This phase of the manner in which disease may be spread is now continuously gaining in importance.

A History of the Pathological Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, Between 1891–1921

“…34 Although not the first paper on amebiasis in monkeys, the work was characterized by a clear and wellillustrated description of both the gross and histologic lesions in the intestinal tract and liver. It was a work of exceptional quality for the Pathological Division, because it actually dealt with the disease process rather than exclusively with the organism that caused it.…”

The Pathoparasitology of Nonhuman Primates: A Review

“…Infection is said to be common in Old World monkeys but uncommon or rare in New World monkeys obtained from their natural habitat [200,742,791,869]. Young monkeys and New World monkeys are reported to sustain more severe lesions from infection with this parasite [46,90,207,223,704,742,869]. The morphology of this parasite has been discussed [90,182,290,389,529,530,748,791].…”

“…Only when it invades the mucosa does it become pathogenic and may lead to amebic dysentery [529]. Clinically, affected animals show the following signs: lethargy, weakness, dehydration, anorexia, vomiting, and severe diarrhea that mayor may not be hemorrhagic or catarrhal [90,223,290,379,385,461,530,588,665,704,829,868,869,890]. The gross and microscopic lesions associated with amebiasis in nonhuman primates have been described [57,60,90,290,300,461,588,665,704,742,791,829,869].…”

11. The Classification of Spiders.

“…One case is on record of dysentery, which may have been amcebic, ill i~ captive orang-outang in the Dutch West Indies (Prowazek (1912 b ) ) . 'L'lien there was the dysentery outbreak among captive spi'der-monkeys in tropical South America, reported by Eichhorn and Gallagher (1916), which resulted in the death of eight animals : the authors found lesions in the intestine and liver, and they reported amcebz, which they regarded as the cixrisativc organism but which did not produce dysentery when put into cats. (13iit, see footnote on p.…”