TREATMENT OF BABESIA BIGEMINA INFECTION IN CATTLE
275
salivation. The tears and the saliva were bluish in colour, and discolouration of
the conjunctival and the buccal mucous membranes soon followed. The non¬
pigmented parts of the skin, over the regions of the groin and scrotum were
stained blue a little later. A marked tendency towards defecation was observed
and on straining, transparent jelly-like mucus was passed. The inoculated animals
appeared to be depressed and made no attempt to rise soon after the injection.
The symptoms passed off within two hours in animals that received smaller doses.
Donatien and Lestoquard [1927] are of opinion that the injection of trypanblue
into healthy or chronically infected cases does not give rise to toxic symptoms
but on the other hand believe that such symptoms are due to the liberation
of toxins on account of lysis of the parasites. Contrary to the view expressed
by the above-mentioned workers it may be pointed out that the symptoms des-
cribed above were observed in the batch of fourteen bulls used for M. T. D.
tests that may be classed as healthy or chronically infected in view of the fact that
none of these animals showed evidence of red-water when they were subjected
to the experiment. In those animals that received the maximum dose, the drug
was noticed to be eliminated with the body excretions six minutes after the in-
oculation ; while in others that received a smaller quantity this process took
from ten to thirty minutes. Severe toxic symptoms were exhibited on inocula-
tion of 4 grms. of trypanblue, viz., depression, loss of control over the limbs, diar-
rhœa, inappetence and dyspnœa. Tympanites is not an uncommon symptom
that is associated with the introduction of trypanblue. The discolouration of the
mucous membranes and tissues have been noticed to persist over four months.
As a result of these observations the maximum dose of the dye that could be
tolerated with safety was determined to be between 3 to 3.5 grms. per 220 lb.
body-weight. In order to test the efficacy of this heavy dose of trypanblue, four
healthy animals were artificially infected with B. bigemina. Two of these were
treated with trypanblue, one with three successive injections of 3.5, 2.5 and
1.5 grms. and the other with two consecutive doses of 3 and 1.5 grms. on 5th
and 6th day after the infective inoculation, respectively. The remaining two
animals were untreated to serve as controls. All four animals were then infected
with rinderpest virus on the 10th day after the initial inoculation. In both the
treated cases the parasites disappeared after two and three days following the last
injection of trypanblue respectively, but on infection with rinderpest, however,
B. bigemina reappeared in both these animals on 10th and 9th day respectively,
and persisted until death in each case. In the two controls, B. bigemina became
more frequent on infection with rinderpest and in one case persisted until death.
In the other case they disappeared after 21st day and the animal survived. From
this experiment it will be observed that inspite of the attempt to cleanse the cir-
culating blood with large doses of trypanblue, the parasites flared up as a result
of infection with rinderpest and, curiously enough, brought about death in both
the treated animals.