Abstract
A comparative study of degrees of parasitemia, localisation, lesions, and effect on sperm quality of pigs experimentally infected with pathogenic Trypanosoma brucei brucei and Trypanosoma congolense was made. Fifteen crossbred (Landrace × Large White) boars aged between 12 and 15 months were used. They were divided into three groups of five animals each and slaughtered on two occasions according to the spermatogenic cycle of the boar.Clinically, the disease course could be divided into prepatent phase, lasting 4 and 7 days for boars infected with T. brucei brucei and T. congolense, respectively, acute phase from 9 to 15 days, and chronic phase. Similar clinical symptoms included fluctuating pyrexia (37.6–41.6 °C) and parasitemia (log 5.4–7.8), and severe genital lesions.Trypanosomes were found in the genital tract, soft organs, and the brain of infected boars. Trypanosoma brucei brucei was present more in organs particularly in the genital tract than T. congolense, and caused more severe lesions resulting in the degeneration of testes which involved the Leydig cells, basement membrane, Sertoli and germ cells, with loss of libido.Significant differences existed between T. brucei brucei and T. congolense infected boars on one hand, and between infected and control boars on the other hand with regard to gonadal and body weights (P < 0.05), and sperm reserves (P < 0.01) of different sections of the genital tract. The consequences of trypanosomiasis due to trypanosomes other than Trypanosoma simiae on boar reproductive capacity are discussed.
Animal Reproduction Science 04/1992; 27(2-3-27):225-237. DOI:10.1016/0378-4320(92)90060-Q
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