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Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in zoo animals in three cities in China

  • Genetics, Evolution, and Phylogeny - Original Paper
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Abstract

Giardia duodenalis is a flagellated parasitic microorganism that parasitizes in the intestines of humans and animals. Although asymptomatic infections commonly exist in both humans and animals, some enteric symptoms have been reported in immunocompromised individuals, posing a threat to public health. Children could be infected with G. duodenalis through an environment contaminated by infective animals. Thus, the investigation of the prevalence and genotypes of G. duodenalis in zoo animals is important. In this study, 672 fecal samples of 113 species of animals, including non-human primates, artiodactyla, perissodactyla, proboscidian, marsupial, birds, carnivora, and rodents, were collected from three zoos in Hangzhou city, Dalian city, and Suzhou city in China. The samples were screened for the positivity of G. duodenalis by nested PCR based on the β-giardin (bg), triosephosphate isomerase (tpi), and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) gene loci. The overall G. duodenalis prevalence was 10.6% (71/672). The prevalence in non-human primates, artiodactyla, perissodactyla, proboscidian, marsupial, birds, carnivora, and rodent was 6.9% (10/144), 9.0% (12/133), 17.1% (6/35), 0% (0/6), 8.7% (2/23), 13.3% (28/211), 6.7% (7/105), and 40.0% (6/15), respectively. The region and category were considered risk factors for G. duodenalis infection in zoo animals (p < 0.001). Additionally, four genotypes of G. duodenalis were identified in zoo animals, including assemblage E (n = 46), assemblage A (n = 18), assemblage B (n = 6), and assemblage D (n = 1). The assemblages A, B, D, and E are also genotypes observed in humans and other animals. Among the sequences obtained in our study, one multilocus genotype (MLG) of the sub-assemblage AI was observed within assemblage A. Furthermore, three MLGs were detected within assemblage B. These findings reveal G. duodenalis genetic variability in zoo animals in three cities in China and suggest that zoo animals could be a potential source of human infection with G. duodenalis.

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Funding

Project support was provided by the Fund for Shanxi “1331 Project” (Grant No. 20211331–13), the Special Research Fund of Shanxi Agricultural University for High-level Talents (Grant No. 2021XG001), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP) (Grant No. CAAS-ASTIP-2016-LVRI-03), the Yunnan Expert Workstation (Grant No. 202005AF150041), and Veterinary Public Health Innovation Team of Yunnan Province (Grant No. 202105AE160014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, 030801, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Zou, Xiao-Dong Li & Xing-Quan Zhu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, 730046, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Zou, Xiao-Dong Li & Yu-Meng Meng

  3. College of Wildlife & Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, Heilongjiang Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Long Wang

  4. Key Laboratory of Wildlife Diseases and Biosecurity Management of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, 150040, Heilongjiang Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Long Wang

  5. School of Geography and Tourism, Harbin University, Harbin, 150086, Heilongjiang Province, People’s Republic of China

    Hao-Ning Wang

  6. Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of Higher Education of Yunnan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xing-Quan Zhu

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  1. Yang Zou
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Correspondence to Xing-Quan Zhu.

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The fecal samples of zoo animals were collected strictly, according to the legal requirement guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the Ministry of Health, China.

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Zou, Y., Li, XD., Meng, YM. et al. Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in zoo animals in three cities in China. Parasitol Res 121, 2359–2366 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07565-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07565-w

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