Trypanosoma brucei

Trypanosoma brucei is a parasitic species that causes Sleeping sickness, also called Human African Trypanosomiasis, in humans and nagana in animals in Africa. It is transmitted by the infected tse-tse fly. T. brucei has three subspecies:

1) T. b. brucei: It causes a wasting disease in cattle, nagana, but does not infect humans. 2) T. b. gambiense: It causes a chronic disease in humans. 3) T. b. rhodesiense: It causes an acute disease in humans.

The disease in humans is called “African sleeping sickness” due to the lethargy it induces in the infected individual.