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Because an increasing number of reports have indicated that thrombocytopenia may occur during the course of African trypanosomiasis, a comprehensive study was designed to analyse the variables influencing the incidence and severity of this complication. Thrombocytopenia occurred in all of 40 infected domestic livestock and wildlife that were studied. The magnitude of the platelet reduction was independent of the route of inoculation (intravenous or transmission by tsetse), the genus or breed of livestock, and the species or variable antigen type (VAT) of trypanosome (several VATs of Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) rhodesiense, T. (T.) brucei, T. (Nannomonas) congolonse, and T. (Duttonella) vivax. All 51 rats studied also became severely thrombocytopenic at the peak of parasitaemia with each of these 4 species and T. (T.) gambiense. The only variable that caused a statistically significant difference in the severity of thrombocytopenia was the height of parasitaemia, which was directly related to the reduction in the number of platelets. Rat platelets were more resistant than those of livestock to a given number of trypanosomes per ml of blood but became equally depressed during the course of the infection because the peak parasitaemia of rats was much higher. The data indicate that thrombocytopenia is a universal complication of African trypanosomiasis and underscore the potential importance of platelet damage in the pathogenesis of the coagulopathies, hemorrhage, vasoconstriction, and tissue damage that complicate this disease.

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Seventy-eight British soldiers stationed in the Eastern Sovereign Base Area (ESBA) in Cyprus contracted Q fever in the period December 1974 to June 1975. Pneumonia developed in 59% of cases. Of 31 patients tested, 81% had biochemical evidence of hepatitis although only one became clinically jaundiced. Three patients (4%) suffered pericarditis. Treatment with tetracycline had no apparent effect on the course of the disease. Investigation revealed an abortion epidemic involving 21 mixed flocks of sheep and goats in the south-eastern coastal region. 11 of the flocks grazed in and around the ESBA. A serological survey of 10 affected flocks, and evidence collected from previous years, indicated that the abortion epidemic was the result of infection with Coxiella burneti. Infection in the humans was almost certainly acquired by inhalation of dust from brush contaminated with rickettsial parturition products of the aborting flocks. A human serological survey revealed a number of cases of subclinical Q fever in a susceptivle military population, and an asymptomatic epidemic in a largely immune local position.

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Eight 2-month-old lambs, divided into two groups, were experimentally infected with 5000 and 2500 larvae of H. contortus. It was found that the infection assumes a course with well manifested clinical symptoms, diarrhea, lowered appetite, stunted bodily growth, anemia, eosinophilia and lymphocytosis. Both the clinical symptoms and the parasitologic aspects are dependent on the extent of the infection. The total content of Ca and of the blood serum drops, and the amount of Mg fluctuates within the normal range.

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Studied were five flocks of 240 sheep each. It was found that prior to impregnation the positive complement-fixation test (c. f. test) reagents varied from 16 to 61 per cent with titers ranging from 1:50 to 1:10. Abortions, however, were established only in two of the flocks consisting of young sheep, aged 3 and 4 years, at the first or second lambing. The abortions took place in the fourth month of pregnancy. In one of these flocks having 43 per cent positive reagents there were 40 per cent returns, and 28 of the ewes miscarried, 12 of them being positive for toxoplasmosis. In the second flock there were 61 per cent positive reagents, and 9 of the ewes miscarried, 5 of them being positive for toxoplasmosis. In the remaining three flocks consisting of 5-year-old sheep there were no abortions. The ewes that miscarried and were positive for toxoplasmosis showed a rise in their serum titers: from 1:40 on the 15th day after the abortion to 1:80 on the 30th day. It is believed that in these sheep the abortions are not due to toxoplasmosis, and in sheep flocks with a high percent of positive toxoplasmosis reagnets there may not be abortions.

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