Am. J. Trop. Med., s1-18(2), 1938, pp. 207-212
Copyright © 1938 by American Journal of Tropical Medicine
On the Distribution of Trypanosoma Cruzi Chagas in the Southwestern United States1
Fae D. Wood AND
Sherwin F. Wood
From the Department of Zoology, University of California at Los Angeles
- 1. The feces of 287 cone-nose bugs and the blood of sixty rodents, chiefly wood rats, from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah were examined microscopically for Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan cause of American human trypanosomiasis.
- 2. None of these bugs or rodents showed the infection.
- 3. Specimens of the bugs were infected experimentally in the laboratory with the California and a Brazilian strain of T. cruzi.
- 4. The localities from which rats or bugs were examined are shown on an accompanying map.
- 5. The two localities in southwestern United States where the infection is known to be present in animal carriers are near San Diego, California and Tucson, Arizona.
Received August 11, 1937.
1 The survey reported in this paper was aided by a research grant to the senior author from the American Medical Association, which grant is hereby gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due also to Mr. Robert L. Usinger of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, for assistance in identification of insects, to Mr. George G. Cantwell of the Los Angeles Museum, for identification of mammals, and to Dr. Charles T. Vorhies of the University of Arizona for valuable suggestions on location of wood rat nests.
Copyright © 1938 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.