Monday, February 18, 2019
Case of the Week 532
This week's case was generously donated by Dr. Richard Bradbury and Dr. Sarah Sapp from the Morphology lab at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The following objects were seen in a wet mount of a concentrated stool specimen. The specimen was obtained from a West African baboon, but this finding may also be seen in human stool specimens. Identification?
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14 comments:
Bertiella?
OK, here we are, taking on some monkey business. At first look, the spherical object on the left of the first picture and the one of the third picture may lure us to identify them as eggs of some sort.
But the oval large object on the right side of the first picture as well as the second photo when enlarged will show us the cilia. The second picture shows also a cytostome (oral groove) on the upper end of the object.
All clues point to the identification of Balantidium coli/suis.
What about the hairless spherical objects? They are simply the cysts of the ciliate.
Would be nice to see the trophzoites moving around like a VW Superbeetle.
Florida Fan
B coli?
Now known as Balantioides coli, apparently.
It appears to be Balantidium coli.
According to my predecessors, especially with Florida Fan.
By the way, Balantidium, Neobalantidium or Balantioides?
Luis.
I thought it’s called Neobalantidium coli nowadays.
balantidium coli
So, It looks like when Neobalantidium was described in 2013, the authors overlooked a paper from 1931 that proposed the name Balantidioides. If it was simply an oversight on their part, then yes the name could indeed be Balantidioides. However, it is possible there was something in the description of Balantidioides that rendered the name invalid (i.e., rules of nomenclature where not followed, at least for what was acceptable at the time). There is also another nomenclatural rule that states if a name is not used in the literature for a specific amount of time, it can be rendered invalid (not sure yet it that applies here).
I am in discussion with Bobbi and Sina Adl about this to get to the bottom of things. I only became aware of the resurrection of Balantidioides just today myself (even though the paper came out in 2014)!
Taxonomy can be a messy discipline, but I love it :-D
All these name changes occurred after my retirement, making this an educational week for me. Just a couple comments from the old school.
B. coli is supposedly the only ciliate which parasitizes humans.
The first photo shows a long tubular structure between the trop. and the cyst appearing like a spring. These are commonly seen in fecal examines. They are "spring cells" which are part of plant vascular system.
Cisti e trofozoiti di Balantidium coli.
I agree that is Balantidium coli based on the morphology, presence of cilia and cytostome. I cannot figure out the spiral thing, unlikely to be parasite
As Old One has stated, the spiral object or spring like object is of vegetal origin. From time to time, we do find these while examining fecal specimens.
Florida Fan
Amazing pics. It looks like when Neobalantidium was described in 2013,same as that. There is also another nomenclatural rule that states if a name is not used in the literature for a specific amount of time, it can be rendered invalid (not sure yet it that applies here).
Creepy
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