Presence of Trypanosomes in Bush Babies after Eating Infected Rats

Abstract

Two bush babies (Galago crassicaudatus lasiotis Peters), examined six weeks after capture, were found heavily infected with polymorphic trypanosomes. Inquiries elicited that a few weeks earlier they had escaped from their cages at night and eaten the bodies of several white rats killed while infected with a virulent strain of T. gambiense and left lying on a bench. As an experiment, another bush baby and a white rat heavily infected with T. rhodesiense were placed in the same cage. The rat was immediately seized, killed and eaten by the bush baby, which afterwards became infected. When tested the trypanosomes failed to penetrate mucous membranes, so were presumably transmitted through abrasions; the infections were fatal within a month.