Infectivity and sporogony of Caryospora-type oocysts of Isospora rivolta obtained by heating.

The infectivity and sporogony of Caryospora-type oocysts of Isospora rivolta obtained by heat treatment were examined. Fresh unsporulated oocysts of I. rivolta were heated at 50 degrees C for 5 min, then poured into a cold 2% potassium dichromate solution and incubated at 25 degrees C. To observe the stage of sporulation, 100 oocysts were examined at 2-h intervals after incubation. The earliest sporulated oocysts were observed at 14 h and the sporulation time was 22 h, similar to that of nontreated oocysts. To determine the infectivity, only Caryospora-type oocysts were collected after sporulation and inoculated orally into cats and mice. The mice were killed at 7 days after inoculation, and their mesenteric lymph nodes and spleens were fed to other cats. All of these cats shed oocysts. The newly discharged oocysts developed into the Isospora type after sporulation. These results suggest that the Caryospora-type oocysts transformed only morphologically after heat treatment and were as infective as the nontreated oocysts to host animals.