ABSTRACTS
Therapeutique generale de piroplasmoses. (Treatment of piroplasmosis.)
DONATION, A., and LESTOGUARD, F. Rev. Vet. 85, 417-433 (1933).
In this comprehensive article, the authors review, under appropriate headings (as indicated
below), the present position in regard to the prospects of cure and prevention of the various forms
of piroplasmosis affecting cattle and solipeds, the parasites considered by them comprising Piro¬
plasma bigeminum (cosmopolitan), Babesiella bovis (European), Babesiella berbera (North
African), Babesiella argentina (South American), Anaplasma marginale (cosmopolitan), Theileria
dispar (North African and Asiatic), Theileria parva (South African), Piroplasma caballi (cosmo-
politan), and Nuttallia equi (cosmopolitan).
A. CURATIVE TREATMENT.
I. Specific Treatment.
(1) Trypanblue.—This drug is only effective for true piroplasmosis due to parasites of the
subgenus Piroplasma sensu stricto, e.g., P. bigeminum, P. caballi, P. ovis and P. canis. The
drug is used intravenously, the doses recommended by the authors being 0.2 grammes for
cattle and 0.5 grammes for horses and mules. A single dose is stated to be usually sufficient
to effect a cure.
(2) Piroblue.—This is a combination of Trypanblue with certain bile acids, the latter having
the property of reducing the surface tension of liquids and thereby effecting an intimate contact
of Trypanblue with the parasites. For cattle, Theiler recommends a dose of 1 to 2 grammes and
for horses affected with P. caballi infection, a dose of 2 grammes. Donation and Lestoguard
found the drug also effective for nuttalliosis.
(3) Ichthargen.— This drug would appear to have been used with considerable success in the
treatment of babesiellosis (which is not known to occur in India).
(4) Stoversol.—Used in combination with quinine bromohydrate, it yields favourable results
in the treatment of nuttalliosis.
(5) Salts of Quinine,—This drug has been used with some success in the treatment of ana¬
plasmosis.
(6) Hexamethylene Tetramine.—Found efficacious for some forms of babesiellosis.
(7) Antimosan (in 6.3 per cent. solution). - In 1931 Velu and his collaborators treated 13 cases
of T, dispar infection with this drug and death occurred in 5 of these, but out of a lot of 6 animals
treated by them in 1932, only 1 died. In an outbreak dealt with by Denatien and Lestoguard
themselves, " one-half of the affected animals were treated with Antimosan and the other half
left as controls. In the two lots, the total number of deaths amounted to 50 per cent. "
(8) Gonacrine. —Workers in Morocco found a single intravenous dose of 1 gramme of this
drug effective for all forms of piroplasmosis both in cattle and sheep. Donatien and Lesto-
guard found the drug efficacious in babesiellosis, but when employed in doses of 1 to 3 grammes in
the treatment of anaplasmosis, it caused only a temporary amelioration of the symptoms and in two
instances death occurred as a result of intoxication. The Moroccan workers state that they also
treated 21 cases of natural anaplasmosis with this drug and that out of these, 14 survived, those
that succumbed having received the drug in an advanced stage of the disease. Donatien and
Lestoguard tested the efficacy of this drug in experimental theileriasis and found that although it
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