Domain Eukaryota Class Kinetoplastida Family Trypanosomatidae Scientific name Trypanosoma suis | Phylum Euglenozoa Order Trypanosomatida Genus Trypanosoma Rank Species | |
Similar Trypanosoma lewisi, Trypanosoma equiperdum, Trypanosoma irwini, Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma rangeli | ||
Trypanosoma suis is a species of excavate trypanosome in the genus Trypanosoma that causes one form of the surra disease in animals. It infects pigs. It does not infect humans.
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Discovery
Trypanosoma suis was first encountered and described by Ochmann in 1905. He found the parasite in a herd of sick pig in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Hence the name as the word suis means pig. Eventually it was lost in consecutive renaming of the parasite until the 1950s.
Rediscovered
In the 1950s Trypanosoma suis is rediscovered in Burundi by two Belgian researchers.
Trypanosomas suis remains the most rare member of the Salivarian trypanosomes. The only isolated specimen known of this species is kept at the Kenya Trypanosomiasis Research Institute, Nairobi.
The parasite is known to be transmitted by the Tsetse fly.