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A system to designate and define isolates of Trichinella spiralis is proposed. The designation gives the host from which the isolate was recovered, geographic origin, and year of recovery. Isolates of T. spiralis recovered from frozen muscles from four species of wild carnivores had low and different infectivity to laboratory mice. Viable larvae of T. spiralis were obtained from muscle samples of marten, wolverine, polar bear and arctic fox which had been frozen for 5, 6, 12 and 14 mo, respectively.

Blood from 4 wild-trapped bobcats (Lynx rufus rufus) with naturally occurring infection by an intraerythrocytic piroplasm morphologically indistinguishable from the piroplasm form of Cytauxzoon felis was inoculated parenterally into domestic cats. None of the bobcats had signs of disease at the time of capture or subsequently, but all remained parasitemic. Erythroparasitemia developed in all 4 of the domestic cats inoculated with parasitemic bobcat blood. One of the domestic cats later died and had gross and histologic lesions characteristic of those reported in naturally occurring and experimentally induced fatal cytauxzoonosis of domestic cats. The other 3 cats remained parasitemic but otherwise appeared healthy. One of these cats was subsequently inoculated with virulent Cytauxzoon of domestic cat origin and it died within 14 days. Two of the bobcats, including the one whose blood induced fatal cytauxzoonosis in the domestic cat, were similarly inoculated but remained without apparent ill effects. Schizogenous tissue forms of Cytauxzoon organisms were not found in tissues from any of the 4 bobcats or in tissues from the 2 parasitemic domestic cats that were not inoculated with the virulent organism. The results demonstrated that the bobcat is a natural host for the organism that causes fatal cytauxzoonosis in domestic cats and provides presumptive evidence that the naturally occurring bobcat piroplasm may be the intraerythrocytic form of C felis.

From April 1977 to February 1978, wild mammals were trapped in a focus of low leishmanial endemicity (Baccinello) in the Province of Grosseto (Tuscany, Italy). Spleen homogenates of the trapped animals were injected i.p. into hamsters, from which spleen biopsies were taken after 60 days and impression smears carefully observed for the presence of Leishmania. Positive spleens were subinoculated into hamsters. 404 animals of 12 species were trapped: 31 insectivores, 317 rodents and 56 carnivores. Black rats (Rattus rattus) and field mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) were the rodent species most frequently trapped--160 and 139 respectively--of which 143 and 134 respectively were tested in hamsters for Leishmania. 35 foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were caught, of which 16 were tested for Leishmania. Four hamsters were found infested with Leishmania. Three of them had been injected with spleen homogenates from R. rattus and one from V. vulpes although liver and spleen impression smears of all trapped animals were negative for Leishmania on direct microscopical examination. The significance of Leishmania infection in wild animals in the leishmanial focus of Baccinello is discussed.