Bacterial isolation from and transmission by Boophilus decoloratus and Boophilus geigyi

Bacteria were isolated from the haemolymph of Boophilus decoloratus and Boophilus geigyi which had engorged on trade cattle in Nigeria. All the genera of the bacteria were also isolated from the eggs which they laid although some of them were missing from the larvae which eventually hatched. When clean rabbits were inoculated with some genera of bacteria and clean, laboratory bred larvae of B. decoloratus and B. geigyi fed on them, the same genera of bacteria were subsequently isolated from the haemolymph of the engorged adults, the eggs they produced and the larvae which hatched from them. Staphylococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were consistently encountered in the haemolymph, eggs and larvae of both Boophilus species while Proteus mirabilis was additionally consistent in B. geigyi.