A method for determining the Cowdria ruminantium infection rate of Amblyomma hebraeum: effects in mice injected with tick homogenates.

Amblyomma hebraeum ticks, collected in the field and individually homogenized, were injected into mice. Thirteen out of 240 ticks were shown to be infected with the heartwater agent. Antibodies against Cowdria ruminantium were detected in the sera of the mice by means of the indirect fluorescent antibody test. Giemsa-stained smears, prepared from the haemocytes of the ticks, revealed morphologically different forms of the heartwater agent. A strain of C. ruminantium, designated the Welgevonden strain, was isolated in mice from one of the infected ticks and passaged in mice for 8 generations. When inoculated intravenously, it was highly infective to mice, sheep and cattle. The murinotropism of the Welgevonden strain is compared with that of other strains previously described.