Answer to Case 587

Answer toParasite Case of the Week 587:Balantioides(formerlyBalantidium, Neobalantidium)coli.Note the characteristic circumferential cilia and large " kidney bean " shaped macronucleus:I was impressed by how many people knew about the complicated taxonomy of this organism. Blaine Mathison and I had published onNeobalantidium coliin our Medical Parasitology Taxonomy Update (J Clin Microbiol. 2019;57:e01067-18) only to discover shortly afterwards thatBalantioideshas priority overNeobalantidium(we are now working on a correction).From our research, we discovered that Alexeieff was the first to describeBalantioides to accommodateB. coliin 1931. Unfortunately this French manuscript went largely unnoticed for decades, and Pomajbikova et al. alternatively describedNeobalantidiumin 2013 to accommodateB. coli. We can credit Pomajbikova and Stensvold for later uncovering the 1931 manuscript for us and shedding light on current state of taxonomy ofBalantioides coli.I have a pdf of the 1931 French manuscript (with my own translation) if anyone is interested in it. I should note that my French is very rusty, so there may be some errors! Just send me a message at [e-mail] if you would like a copy.I ' d also encourage you to read all of the interesting comments from this case. There are a lot of great pearls in there.

Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 12, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs