piroplasmn.
/ˈpʌɪrə(ʊ)plaz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈpaɪrəˌplæz(ə)m/ Microbiology and Veterinary Medicine.
A protozoan of the sporozoan class Piroplasmea, which comprises species that are parasitic in red blood cells (some are important pathogens of domestic animals) and are transmitted by ticks.
ΚΠ
1901 Vet. Jrnl. 4 50 A strange fact, showing that the form of the parasite varies in its stages of evolution, was that almost all the piroplasms were pear-shaped and bigeminate.
1934 T. W. M. Cameron Internal Parasites Domest. Animals ii. 45 All the piroplasms are tick-carried and consequently the main lines of prevention consist in tick eradication.
1949 C. A. Hoare Handbk. Med. Protozool. iii. 37 A piroplasm of the genus Theileria is the cause of East Coast fever.
1996 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93 6212/2 We compared the frequency with which spirochetes or piroplasms infected adult deer ticks from Nantucket with that of ehrlichiae.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1901