Trypanosomes from elk and horse flies in New Mexico

Trypanosomes (Trypanosoma spp.) of undetermined species were isolated in June 1972 from 5 to 7 elk (Cervus canadensis) captured in the winter of 1971-72 in Wyoming and transported to Red Rock, New Mexico, and, by culture, from 29 of 31 adults of Hybomitra laticornis (Hine) collected in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico in June 1972. Sixteen of the adults of H. laticornis were found to be infected with larvae of the filarial parasite Elaeophora schneideri, indicating that they had fed on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Mule deer in New Mexico as well as white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) in the south-eastern United States have previously been found infected with typanosomes. The trypanosomes from the Tabanids and the elk were almost identical in size.