[Morphological and morphogenetic characteristics of Chlamydia infection in sick animals].

Studies were carried out on the morphology and the morphogenesis of the Chlamydia organisms in animals with various Chlamydia infections. A total of 255 samples of placentae and parenchymal organs were investigated via the electron microscope, using the ultrathin section method and the negative contrasting method. A characteristic was made of Chlamydia infections in sheep, goats, cows, wild murine rodents, and birds. It was found that the morphologic and morphogenetic aspects of Chlamydia reproduction in diseased animals were the same as those described previously in the yolk sacs of chick embryos. The morphology of Chlamydia organisms in the viscera of animals with Chlamydia infections, and particularly in placentae of sheep that miscarried was characterized by the accumulation of elementary and initial bodies--condense, reticular, and intermediary. It was concluded that the morphogenesis of Chlamydia in animals with infections caused by Chlamydia represented a many sided morphologic process characterized by the following more important aspects: chlamydial matrix, initial chlamydial vacuoles, autonomic synthesis of chlamydial bodies in the initial vacuoles and the chlamydial matrix, high production of Chlamydia membranes, and accumulation of polymorphous Chlamydia bodies. Essential in the reproduction of Chlamydia was their massing into and around the capillaries.