Trypanosoma vivax
Trypanosoma vivax is a parasite species in the genus Trypanosoma. It causes the disease nagana, affecting cattle or wild mammals. It is mainly occurs in West Africa, although it has spread to South America. Range Historically restricted to sub-Saharan Africa especially West Africa, it has spread to 13 countries of South America. This has been made easier by its mechanical transmission route, see below. Hosts Hosts include, cattle, horses, sheep, and camels. in South America it is an emerging pathogen of cattle, and sometimes horses and other ruminants. The vector host is Glossina. Life cycle Unusual for a trypanosome, T. vivax does not infect the Glossina vector midgut. Instead it infects and completes an abbreviated life cycle only in the vector's proboscis. Thus it is entirely mechanically transmitted. For this reason it has had a relatively easy time jumping vectors, and thereby even jumping geographic ranges which do not have its customary vector. Symptoms Symptoms of T. vivax include "rapid weight loss, lethargy, weakness, clumsiness, pale mucosa, swelling of superficial lymph nodes, anemia, and fluctuating pyrexia, causing[...]a drop in animal productivity." Enzymes A novel proline racemase of medical and veterinary importance has been described in T. vivax (). It also