List of Plasmodium species infecting primates


The Plasmodium species infecting primates include the parasites causing malaria in humans.

Species infecting humans

Common infections

While infection of humans by other species is known, they are quite rare, in some instances, only a single case. In a number of the cases, the means of infection is unknown, and may be due to accident, i.e. infection by laboratory equipment or a bite by an animal. With the use of the polymerase chain reaction additional species have been and are still being identified that infect humans.

One possible experimental infection has been reported with Plasmodium eylesi. Fever and low grade parasitemia were apparent at 15 days. The volunteer had previously been infected by Plasmodium cynomolgi and the infection was not transferable to a gibbon so this cannot be regarded as definitive evidence of its ability to infect humans. A second case has been reported that may have been a case of P. eylesi but the author was not certain of the infecting species.

A possible infection with Plasmodium tenue has been reported. This report described a case of malaria in a three-year-old black girl from Georgia, United States, who had never been outside the US. She suffered from both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria and while forms similar to those described for P. tenue were found in her blood even the author was skeptical about the validity of the diagnosis.
Confusingly Plasmodium tenue was proposed in the same year for a species found in birds. The human species is now considered to be likely to have been a misdiagnosis and the bird species is described on the Plasmodium tenue page.

Former names

Taxonomy in parasitology until the advent of DNA based methods has always been a problem and revisions in this area are continuing. A number of synonyms have been given for the species infecting humans that are no longer recognised as valid. Since perusal of the older literature may be confusing some currently defunct species names are listed here.
Plasmodium shortii and Plasmodium osmaniae are now considered to be junior synonyms of Plasmodium inui.

''Plasmodium'' taxonomy

Interrelatedness - The evolution of these species is still being worked out and the relationships given here should be regarded as tentative. This grouping, while originally made on morphological grounds, now has considerable support at the DNA level.

Many species of Plasmodium which infect primates have been divided into subspecies. Examples are listed below:
Subspecies infecting primates
*P. cynomolgi — P. cynomolgi bastianelli and P. cynomolgi ceylonensis.
  • P. inui — P. inui inui and P. inui shortii
  • P. knowlesi — P. knowlesi edesoni and P. knowlesi knowlesi.
  • P. vivax — P. vivax hibernans, P. vivax chesson and P. vivax multinucleatum.

Species infecting other hosts

Most if not all Plasmodium species infect more than one host: the host records shown here should be regarded as incomplete.
It has been proposed that the species P. gora and P. gorb should be renamed P. adleri and P. blacklocki respectively.

Primate groups and Plasmodium species

New World monkeys of the family Cebidae: P. brasilianum and P. simium
Old World monkeys of the family Cercopithecidae: P. coatneyi, P. cynomolgi, P. fieldi, P. fragile, P.gonderi, P. georgesi, P. inui, P. knowlesi, P. petersi, P. shortti and P. simiovale
Gibbons of the family Hylobatidae: P. eylesi, P. hylobati, P. jefferyi and P. youngi
Orangutans : P. pitheci and P. silvaticum
Gorillas and chimpanzees: P. billcollini, P. billbrayii, P. falciparum, P. gabonensi, P. gora, P. gorb, P. reichenowi, P. rodhaini and P. schwetzi

Mosquitoes known to transmit human malaria listed by region

This listing may be incomplete as the taxonomy of this genus is under revision.
North American
Central American
South American
North Eurasian
Mediterranean
Afro-Arabian
Afrotropical
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Chinese hills
Malaysian
Chinese
Australasian