| Summary: | We analyzed the blood from 400 one-humped camels, <i>Camelus dromedarius</i> (<i>C. dromedarius</i>)<i>,</i> in Riyadh and Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia to determine if they were infected with the parasite <i>Trypanosoma</i> spp. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) gene was used to detect the prevalence of <i>Trypanosoma</i> spp. in the camels. <i>Trypanosoma evansi</i> (<i>T. evansi</i>) was detected in 79 of 200 camels in Riyadh, an infection rate of 39.5%, and in 92 of 200 camels in Al-Qassim, an infection rate of 46%. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the isolated <i>T. evansi</i> was closely related to the <i>T. evansi</i> that was detected in <i>C. dromedarius</i> in Egypt and the <i>T. evansi</i> strain <i>B15.1 18S</i> ribosomal RNA gene identified from buffalo in Thailand. A BLAST search revealed that the sequences are also similar to those of <i>T. evansi</i> from beef cattle in Thailand and to <i>T. brucei B8/18</i> 18S ribosomal RNA from pigs in Nigeria.
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