To define more exactly the epidemiology of delta virus infection and confirm its role in causing fulminant Labrea hepatitis in the Amazon Basin, we studied the prevalence of delta virus infection among persons with acute and chronic hepatitis B virus infection in the Boca do Acre district of the southern Amazon Basin. Delta virus infection was found in 24% of asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carriers, 29% of acute nonfulminant hepatitis B cases, 74% of fulminant hepatitis B cases, and 100% of chronic hepatitis B cases. Chronic delta virus infection occurred primarily in older children and adults, while acute and fulminant delta virus infection occurred in young children as well. In fulminant hepatitis cases, delta virus superinfection of hepatitis B virus carriers was the most common serological pattern; histopathologic examination showed features identical to those described in fulminant hepatitis cases of similar etiology in Colombia and Venezuela. Delta virus infection is highly endemic in the southern Amazon Basin and is the principal cause of Labrea hepatitis.

Trabalho executado no Nucleo de Patologia Regional e Higiene da Universidade Federal do Para e Instituto Evandro Chagas da Fundacao Servico Especial de Saude Publica. Integrante de pesquisa conjunta com o Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Hamburgo. Alemanha. segundo convenio CNPq-KFA. Projeto SIP/02- 006 do Programa dos Tropicos Umidos do CNPq

Two cases of Jorge Lôbo's disease are described: they were from lhe same household and from lhe same locality of lhe Amazon Region of Brazil. Observations are made on lhe histology of lhe lesion and developmental forms of lhe fungus as seen in histological sections of biopsied material and cultures. The fungus in one of them presented unusual morphological aspects. Infections were established after lhe inoculation of material into lhe cheek-pouch of hamsters. The known distribution of lhe disease (about 69 cases) is mapped throughout lhe Brazilian Amazon Region.

The aetiologic agent of Jorge Lôbo's disease inoculated into the cheek-pouch ~ of 22 hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) produced 1.5 to 5 mm diameter nodules composed of histiocytes and giant cells containing parasitic furigi. Subcutarleous infections of similar material into the legs and ears did not produce any lesions. Fungal spores were present 180 days after being injected. Infected cheekpouch material from a primary isolation was passaged twice in hamsters. The histopathology of the lesions produced in the danar and subinoculated hamsters was the same. Tissue kept for 41 days in tissue culture fluid on the otherhand produced small lesions by 30 days. When examined 90 days later, however, no lesions were seen.

The karyo types of five turtles of the genus Podocnemis from the Amazon Region of Brazil were determined. Four species, P. cayennensis, P. expansa, P. sextuberculata and P. unifilis have 28 (2n) chromosomes and one, P. dumeriliana, has 26 (2n). No morphologically distinguishable sex chromosomes could be observed. The difference in number in P. dumeriliana can be explained by the occurrence of a centric fusion. The chromosome numbers in this genus are extremely low when compared with the range previously found in Chelonia (2n = 50 to 64).

Autosomal translocation and male sterility in Romney sheep: 209 B-group chromosomes, deleted short arm in: 97, 109 Bisatellitcd chromosome, extra, familial: 177 Breeding of Meriones shawi x M. libyeus hybrids: 35 Cell line, established, hyperdiploid, hematopoietic, with persistent minute marker chromosome: 332 Chimcrism