- Plasmodium pessoai
"Plasmodium pessoai" is a parasite of the genus "
Plasmodium ".Like all "Plasmodium" species "P. pessoai" has both
vertebrate andinsect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite arereptile s.Taxobox
color = khaki
name = "Plasmodium pessoai"
image_caption =
image_width =
regnum =Protista
phylum =Apicomplexa
classis =Aconoidasida
ordo =Haemosporida
familia =Plasmodiidae
genus = "Plasmodium "
species = "P. pessoai"
binomial = "Plasmodium pessoai"Description
The parasite was first described by Ayala "et al" in 1978. Ayala S.C., Moreno-Robles E., Bolaños-Herrera, R. (1978) "Plasmodium pessoai" sp. n. procedentes de dos serpientes costarricenses. J. Parasitol. 64(2)330-335 ] The species is named after Dr Samuel B Pessoa - a parasitologist at the
Instituto Butantan ,São Paulo ,Brazil .Morphologically this species appears to be related to "
Plasmodium aurulentum ".Geographical occurrence
This species is found in
Costa Rica ,Central America .Clinical features and host pathology
This species is one of the three known to infect snakes: the other two species infecting snames are "
Plasmodium wenyoni " and "Plasmodium tomodoni ".This species infects the rat snake ("
Spilotes pullatus ") and the bush master ("Lachesis muta ").The
gametocyte s are small andsausage shaped (10.4 x 4.6micrometre s)Immature
schizont s often contain a digestivevacuole .Mature schizonts are spherical or bouquet-shaped and produce 22 - 32
merozoite s. They may possess an intensely staining magenta or rose-coloured substance in the matrix of thesurrounding vacuole.References
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