Trypanosoma congolense

Haematological, pathological and plasma biochemical changes in rabbits experimentally infected with <i>Trypanosoma congolense</i>

“…The increases in the (ALP) and (AST) levels observed till the end of the experiment were significant and agrees with the observations in T. vivax infection of cattle (Gray, 1961;Kadima et al, 2000), T. congolense infected cattle (Wellde et al, 1974) and T. evansi infected camels (Boid et al, 1980) Though the increase in the plasma AST was so sudden that at day 14 pi T. congolense infected rabbits had plasma AST level of 50%, this early increase could not have been due to only tissue damage alone but also as a result of the destruction of trypanosomes by host defence system thus resulting in release of the trypanosomal AST and ALP (Gray, 1969). The increase in AST in the later part of the experiment could be as a result of tissue breakdown (necrosis and inflammation) in host particularly liver, muscle and kidney (Ikede et al, 1972).…”

“…The increase in bilirubin in rabbits is suggestive of haemolytic anaemia due to. T. congolense and or obstructive jaundice as previously reported in T. brucei infected rabbits (Arowolo et al, 1988) Elevation in the plasma urea level in the T. congolense infected rabbits in the first week of the experiment is in consonance with previous findings (Wellde et al, 1974;Sadique et al, 2001, EgbeNwiyi et al, 2005 and could be due to renal damage (Anosa, 1988a;Anosa, 1988b).…”

“…Other biochemical changes that have been reported in trypanosomosis include hypoglycaemia (Anosa, 1988b), increased plasma bilirubin in T. brucei infected dogs (Omotainse et al, 1994), and rabbits (Arowolo et al, 1988) and in T. congolense infected dogs (Gow, et al, 2007). An increase in serum urea in rats experimentally infected with T. brucei have also been reported (Wellde et al, 1974;Egbe-Nwiyi et al, 2005) Information on on the haematological, pathological and serum biochemical alterations due to T. congolense infection in rabbits and from a single species of animal so as to relate these changes to the infection is scanty. In this study, rabbits were challenged with T. congolense and the subsequent parasitaemia in relation to the haematological, biochemical and pathological changes monitored and reported.…”

“…Hypoglycaemia has been reported in natural trypanosomosis in human and animals (Moon et al, 1968;Wellde et al, 1974). Excessive utilization of the blood glucose by trypanosomes for their metabolism has been thought to account for the hypoglycaemia observed during trypanosomosis (Anosa, 1988b).…”

Crossreacting determinants in variant-specific surface antigens of African trypanosomes.

“…It is our intention in this paper to reexamine whether antigenic similarities exist between isolated VSSAs of trypanosomes. T. congolense "Transmara" strain was isolated from an infected cow near the Kenya-Tanzania border in 1966 (12). Clone X4 was derived from the strain in lethally irradiated mice (900 rads).…”