Sarcocystis of rodents and marsupials in Brazil

Abstract

Sarcocystis species have been described in a wide variety of mammals, birds and reptiles throughout temperate and tropical countries of the world. Although early workers (Alexeieff, 1913; Wenyon, 1926) considered it impossible to differentiate species on the morphology, there are such clear-cut differences in the structure of the cyst wall, morphology of spores and other details, that there at present seems every justification for giving specific rank to these different parasites in their various hosts. Furthermore, with one or two exceptions, attempts to infect laboratory animals have met with little or no success and it would appear that at least some species of Sarcocystis may be highly host-specific.