Isoenzyme studies on Theileria (Protozoa, Sporozoa). Enzyme activity associated with the erythrocytic stage.

Bovine blood containing piroplasms of Theileria parva, as well as non-infected blood, was lysed and subjected to iso-electric focussing. Staining for 13 different enzymes revealed parasite-associated bands of glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI) activity, not of any of the other enzymes. There were no variations between individual donor animals in the host cell GPI bands and these bands did not interfere with the recognition of the parasite-associated bands, so that purification of the piroplasms was unnecessary. Blood from cattle infected with T. mutans also gave parasite-associated bands of GPI, but no such bands were seen in zymograms of blood from cattle infected with a Theileria sp. from Japan. Dependent on the level of parasitaemia, up to four parasite-associated bands were found in one strain of T. parva and up to three in two other strains. Among the disadvantages of using piroplasm material for the study of isoenzymes of T. parva is the fact that animals often die before their parasitaemia is sufficiently high, and that some strains never give rise to a high parasitaemia.