Experimental infection of sheep with Naegleria fowleri of human origin.

A strain of Naegleria fowleri, isolated from a child who died of primary amebic meningoencephalitis in Florida, was instilled in the nostrils of a sheep to determine whether livestock are susceptible to infection with free-living amebae. The animal died 7 days later from amebic infection of the central nervous system. N. fowleri were recovered from the brain and spinal cord of the animal. A control, saline-instilled sheep that had been pair-caged with the infected animal remained healthy.