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Blood Parasites of Mammals in New Zealand

Material and Methods

Material and Methods

Heart-blood smears of domestic animals were made at abattoirs, while preparations from pest species were made with the co-operation of Government and local-body eradication agencies. No material was obtained from either of our two species of bats, the only land mammals native to New Zealand. Peripheral-blood smears from two examples of the fur seal Arctocephalus forsteri were obtained by pricking a flipper with the point of a scalpel, while material from the humpback whale Megaptera nodosa was collected at the Tory Channel whaling station.

Thin blood and organ smears were made on 3 in. x1 in. microscopic slides, air dried, fixed in absolute methyl alcohol, and stained with Giemsa. The uncovered smears were studied under a x5 ocular and a x97 oil-immersion objective, each slide being examined for at least half an hour. All figures were drawn with the aid of an Abbé camera lucida at a magnification of 2,400, a x15 ocular being substituted for the x5 used in searching.