Ultrastructural aspects of intraerythrocytic development of a Venezuelan strain of Anaplasma marginale.

Blood samples from splenectomized calves infected with a Venezuelan strain of Anaplasma marginale were studied by electron microscope. A. marginale appears to invade erythrocytes by the invagination of the host cell plasma membrane. The parasite reproduces by binary or multiple fission, changing from a rounded to an irregularly polyhedral form during and after division. The mature Anaplasma, within the host red cell modifies the erythrocytes cytoplasma and external membrane producing pores through which the parasite can escape without lysing the host erythrocyte.