East coast fever: Cultivationin vitro of bovine spleen cell lines infected and transformed byTheileria parva

Three spleen cell lines derived from 3 calves experimentally infected withTheileria parva have been established. After an apparent disappearance of parasitized cells from the cultures there was a resurgence of infected lymphoblasts in 5 to 6 weeks. The infected lymphoblasts can be readily subcultured without feeder layers in a medium consisting of Eagle’s Minimal Essential Medium and 20 per cent foetal calf serum. The plating of infected cells was greatly enhanced by implanting the cells on preformed monolayers. No evidence was obtained by the methods employed which might indicate the existence of an extracellular form of the parasite capable of reinfecting new cellsin vitro.