The Neospora caninum is a protozoon that causes neuromuscular alterations in dogs, with formation of cysts mainly in the nervous tissue, and abortions in bovines. The central nervous system (CNS) is constituted, mainly, for neurons and gliocytes. Being the N. caninum an intracellular parasite with tropism for the nervous system, this work verified the respiratory metabolism and the lysosomal activity in glial cells after it infection. Cultures of the glia gotten from the cerebral cortex of neonates rats, had been kept with regular exchanges of way enriched with 10% of bovine fetal serum, 1mM of piruvic acid and 2 mM of L-glutamine. They have been infected, in an approach relation of 1:1 (cell/parasite). The consumption of oxygen, evaluated by polarography and the dosage of acid phosphatase, used as marker of the lysosome compartment, in the control and infected groups had been determined with 24 and 72 h after infection. The respiration of the glial cells 24 and 72h was of 307,2 ± 34,7 and 308,9 ± 64,1 m L of oxygen per m g of total proteins, and 566,2 ± 54,6 and 579 ± 117,5 m L O₂/m g of total proteins for the control and infected ones respectively. In the controls and treated cells, the activities of acid phosphatase 24 h after infection were 450 ± 80 and 1300 ± 500 mUI/m g of total proteins and 1340 ± 546 and 4100 ± 990 mUI/m g of total proteins for 72 h post-infection. The results have shown that the N. caninum did not interfere with the respiratory metabolism of the glial cells when infected "in vitro". However in the first 24 h, they have demonstrated a significant increase on the activity of the lysosome compartment.