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Reactivation of a Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in a Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Experimentally Infected with SIV

Departments of Primate Veterinary Medicine and Primate Husbandry (EK, KM-R, F-JK) and Virology and Immunology (NS), German Primate Center, 37077 Göttingen, Germany; and School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK (PBH)

Trypanosoma cruzi–like flagellates were incidentally noted in blood smears of a routinely monitored rhesus monkey experimentally infected with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Immunodeficiency in the course of the SIV infection reactivated a chronic infection of Chagas' disease that had been unnoticed when the macaque was imported to Europe. The animal developed no specific clinical symptoms of American trypanosomiasis, but histologically a chagasic myocarditis was detected. Analysis of the small subunit rRNA gene of the trypanosome identified the protozoan as T. cruzi.

Key words: Experimental infection; immunodeficiency; Macaca mulatta; myocarditis; SIV; Trypanosoma spp.

Request reprints from Dr. Emanuela Kunz, University of Ulm, Laboratory Animals Research Unit, Oberberghof, D-89069 Ulm (Germany). E-mail: emanuela.kunz{at}ze.uni-ulm.de.