Plasmodium caprae is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium

Plasmodium

Plasmodium is a genus of parasitic protists. Infection by these organisms is known as malaria. The genus Plasmodium was described in 1885 by Ettore Marchiafava and Angelo Celli. Currently over 200 species of this genus are recognized and new species continue to be described.Of the over 200 known...

subgenus Vinckeia

Vinckeia

Vinckeia is a subgenus of the genus Plasmodium - all of which are parastic protozoa. The subgenus Vinckeia was created by Garnham in 1964 to accommodate the mammalian parasites other than those infecting the primates.- Diagnostic features :...

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Like all Plasmodium species P. caprae has both vertebrate

Vertebrate

Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...

 and insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

 hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are domestic goats, Capra aegagrus. The specific epithet for P. caprae, "caprae," comes from the genus name, "Capra," for the goat.

Description

The parasite was first described by de Mello and Paes in 1923.

It was originally classified as Laverania caprae. Laverania

Laverania

Laverania is a subgenus of the genus Plasmodium. The subgenus was created in 1958 by Bray.The name was first proposed by Welch in 1897 as a genus name for the group now known as Plasmodium but for a variety of reasons the genus name Plasmodium was preferred.-History:The first non human primate...

is now recognised as a subgenus of Plasmodium and the correct current designation is Plasmodium caprae.