Trypanosomiasis in the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis Linnaeus, 1758)

Abstract

A black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) moved from a tsetse-free to a tsetse-infested area in Kenya was monitored for two months following translocation. The animal acquired a Trypanosoma vivax infection from natural tsetse challenge, but survived without requiring treatment with trypanocides. The infection was characterised by moderately high parasitaemia, with symptoms of anaemia, leukopaenia and thrombocytopaenia. Although confirmed to be T. vivax through deoxyribonucleic acid hybridisation and parasite development in tsetse in the proboscis only, the parasite had unusual morphology and motility. It also failed to infect normally susceptible hosts such as cows and goats, and produced unusually low infection rates in Glossina morsitans centralis and G. brevipalpis.