Spontaneous Toxoplasmosis in the Whiteface Monkey, Cebus Capucinus, in Panama

Abstract

Spontaneous toxoplasmosis in primates other than man was first reported by Thezé (1916) in a monkey, Stentor seniculus. Later Levaditi and Schoen (1933) described a natural infection in Cynocephalus babuin and Kopciowska and Nicolau (1938) in a chimpanzee. This work has been ably reviewed by Cowen and Wolf (1945). In the present communication spontaneous toxoplasmosis in a Panama whiteface monkey, Cebus capucinus, is described. The strain of organism was isolated in white Swiss mice and has been maintained to date by continuous passage in this rodent.An infant whiteface monkey was brought into the laboratory in a moribund condition in August of 1953 by a local dealer who requested us to examine it for possible yellow fever. This dealer purchased large numbers of monkeys for export and maintained them for variable periods of time in screened enclosures on the outskirts of the city.