Piroplasms from Taiwanese rodents.

Piroplasms from naturally infected bandicoot rats, Bandicota indica (Hodgson), and spiny rats, Rattus coxinga (Swinhoe), from Taiwan caused parasitemias in a wide range of laboratory animals after syringe passage in laboratory rats. Bandicoot and spiny rats could be infected with heterologous piroplasms, but neither species was susceptible to infection with the Gray strain of Babesia microti (França). Nevertheless, the Taiwan piroplasms are probably a geographic strain of B. microti.