Equine trypanosomosis: enigmas and diagnostic challenges

Parasites & Vectors

Table 1 Overview of some characteristics of different taxa within the genus Trypanosoma causing equine trypanosomosis

	Trypanozoon			Duttonella	Nannomonas
	T. brucei	T. evansi type A	T. equiperdum	T. vivax	T. congolense
Distribution	Sub-Saharan Africa	Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Asia	Worldwide except Oceania USA and Canada	Africa, Latin America	Sub-Saharan Africa
Mammalian host range	Multi-species	Multi-species	Equines	Multi-species	Multi-species
Transmission	Tsetse	Biting flies, vampire bats, orally (sexually?)	Sexually (orally via milk?)	Tsetse, biting flies	Tsetse
Morphology in the mammalian host	Pleomorphic^a	Monomorphic^b	Monomorphic	Monomorphic	Monomorphic
Kinetoplast	Complete	Dyskinetoplastic^c or akinetoplastic^d	Dyskinetoplastic	Complete or dyskinetoplastic	Complete
Kinetoplast minicircle type		A	C or undefined
ATPase γ C-terminus mutations		A281-	A273P or WT

^aPleomorphic: present as long slender, short stumpy and intermediate trypomastigotes during an infection
^bMonomorphic: long slender trypomastigotes with anecdotal evidence for partial pleomorphism in T. evansi [35]
^cDyskinetoplastic: partial loss of kinetoplast DNA, in particular maxicircle DNA
^dAkinetoplastic: complete lack of kinetoplast DNA

ISSN: 1756-3305