Multilocus isozyme identification of Trypanosoma brucei stocks isolated in central Africa: evidence for an animal reservoir of sleeping sickness in Congo.

Six Congolese and 3 Zairian Trypanosoma brucei stocks were studied by isozyme cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Twenty isozyme systems were used, of which only 5 showed variability. These 5 polymorphic systems made it possible to identify 5 different zymodemes. Zymodemes isolated from man were recorded both from pig and sheep too, which confirms the results of previous authors. This favors the existence of an animal reservoir of human African trypanosomiasis in the Congo, which could play a role in the transmission of the disease, at least by the maintenance of residual foci.