TRYPANOSOMA-VIVAX - SEQUENCE OF ANTIGENIC VARIANTS IN MICE AND GOATS

Three populations composed of different variable antigen types were derived from a clone of the recently isolated mouse-infective Trypanosoma vivax stock Zaria Y486. The antigenic composition of the trypanosome populations which appeared following infection of mice and goats with these populations was compared using the immune lysis test. Significant differences were observed in the antigenic composition of both the initial and relapse populations obtained from goats and mice. These observations suggest that there may be selective growth of different variable antigen types in different hosts with the result that the antigenic composition of a goat-derived population may be greatly altered following subinoculation into normal mice. This can be somewhat reduced however if goat derived populations are subinoculated into lethally irradiated mice. Two antigenically different T. vivax populations were also cyclically transmitted to individual goats in a preliminary study of the effect of tsetse transmission on the antigenic composition of the ingested populations. It was observed that the composition of the first detectable populations in the infected goats was similar but different from that ingested by the tsetse flies. © 1979.