1Postgraduate Research Institute in Animal Sciences, Kattupakkam, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu-603203, India
2Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu-600 007, India
*Corresponding author. Email: sreekumar.c@tanuvas.ac.in
Online published on 18 December, 2018.
Blastocystis is a unicellular, anaerobic, eukaryotic, polymorphic protist, which lives in the intestinal tract of various hosts. The present study was conducted with an aim to use in-vitro culture using Jones’ medium to diagnose Blastocystis infection. Among the 70 gut contents of different animals cultured in Jones’ medium, 50 were positive, which included 15 microscopically negative samples. In Jones’ medium, organisms appeared generally ovoid or rounded in profile of different sizes, being only occasionally slightly irregular in outline. Vacuolar and granular forms were the most predominant forms found in in-vitro culture of Jones’ medium. The occurrence of granular forms was found to increase in older culture. Amoeboid form was rarely observed. In culture, stages of binary fission, peanut shaped, polymorphic budding stages were recorded. In vitro culture in Jones’ medium can be a useful diagnostic tool as well as a means to obtain pure cultures of Blastocystis.
Blastocystis, In-vitro culture, Jones’ medium
