Plasmodium durae 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 Giovannolaia

Giovannolaia

Giovanolaia is a subgenus of the genus Plasmodium created by Corradetti et al. in 1963. The parasites within this subgenus infect birds.- Diagnostic features :Species in the subgenus Giovanolaia have the following characteristics:...

.

Like all Plasmodium species P. durae 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 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s.

Description

The parasite was first described by Herman in 1941.

Mature gametocytes tend to lie obliquely within the host cell, displace the nucleus to one pole of the cell and possess one or more clumps of clear pigment granules.

Systematics

It is related to the following species:

Plasmodium asanum

Plasmodium circumflexum

Plasmodium circumflexum

Plasmodium circumflexum is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. circumflexum has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are birds.-Description:...

Plasmodium fallax

Plasmodium fallax

Plasmodium fallax is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. fallax has both vertebrate and insect hosts...

Plasmodium formosanum

Plasmodium gabaldoni

Plasmodium gabaldoni

Plasmodium gabaldoni is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. gabaldoni has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are birds.- Description :...

Plasmodium hegneri

Plasmodium hegneri

Plasmodium hegneri is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. hegneri has both vertebrate and insect hosts...

Plasmodium lophrae

Plasmodium lophrae

Plasmodium pediocetti

Plasmodium pinotti

Plasmodium pinotti

Plasmodium pinotti is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. pinotti has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are birds.- Description :...

Plasmodium polare

Plasmodium polare

Plasmodium polare is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Giovannolaia.Like all Plasmodium species P. polare has both vertebrate and insect hosts...

Geographical occurrence

This species is found in the United States of America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

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Clinical features and host pathology

Hosts of this species include domestic turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

s (Meleagris gallopavo) and Swainson's Francolin

Francolin

Francolins are birds that traditionally have been placed in the genus Francolinus, but now commonly are divided into multiple genera , although some of the major taxonomic listing sources have yet to divide them. They are members of the pheasant family, Phasianidae...

 (Francolinus swainsoni).