Trichuris incognita and the Swiss Tropen- and Public Health-Institute

21 June 2025

The Basel Museum of Natural History ( Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) will relocate to a new home in the St. Johann Quarter in 2029. Preparations for the movement of the roughly 7 million objects are in full swing.

Ready to move

The Giraffe is also coming along, although it is not yet certain whether it will have a place in the new museum or have to settle for a place in the depot after serving the museum for almost a century.

The museum’s latest acquisitions will also move to St. Johann, including a recent discovery of a new species of worm. Although worms are not the daily topic of conversation, around 2 billion people worldwide suffer from some worm-related disease. In the human body, there are not only billions of (unwanted) bacteria but also (unwanted) worms.

Whipworm infections affect approximately 500 million people worldwide. These infections, caused by the parasitic worm Trichuris trichiura, can lead to significant health issues.

Researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), in collaboration with partners in Côte d’Ivoire and the University of Calgary, have discovered a new parasitic worm species, Trichuris incognita, in Côte d’Ivoire during a Swiss TPH-led clinical trial.

The discovery has significant implications for drug development and diagnostics, as the species is visually indistinguishable from known whipworms.

Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, researcher Max Bär of the Swiss TPH on 19 June

The discovery is formally recognised through the official handover of preserved specimens to the Natural History Museum in Basel on 19 June, following international scientific protocols.

As the species looks precisely the same as Trichuris trichiura under the microscope, researchers first suspected drug resistance. Genome analysis then revealed that patients were infected with a different and unknown species. The new species was named Trichuris incognita by the research team.

The breakthrough was made possible thanks to next-generation sequencing technologies, which allowed researchers to construct the whole genome of a parasite. The discovery also highlights the growing importance of next-generation sequencing technologies in parasitology and diagnostics, enabling scientists to detect hidden species that traditional methods, such as microscopy, fail to identify.

Although Switzerland had no colonies, (medical) scientists have traditionally been no less travel-minded and curious, also in this case about tropical diseases. Today, the TPH has 800 employees and collaboration agreements in 100 countries.

It is, therefore, with some pride that scientists from the Institute handed over this new worm species to the Natural History Museum on June 19, 2025. After all, this museum is not just the setting for a collection in the depot and on display, but has always had a scientific and research mission, from the smallest insects to the largest (extinct) mammals.

Although the worms, a male and a female, are in strong water and cannot express themselves, they will undoubtedly feel at home in their shelter and, from 2028, in their new home.

Source and further information: Swiss Tropen- and Public Health-Institute (Swiss TPH); Naturhistorisches Museum Basel)