Abstract
Pentatrichomonas hominis is an anaerobic amitochondrial flagellated protist that primarily colonizes the large intestines of a number of species, including cats, dogs, nonhuman primates, and humans. The prevalence of this parasite in dogs, monkeys, and humans is, however, poorly understood. In this study, a total of 362 fecal samples including 252 dogs, 60 monkeys, and 50 humans from northern China were collected for an epidemiological survey of P. hominis infection.The average prevalence of P. hominis infection determined by nested PCR was 27.38 % (69/252), 4.00 % (2/50), and 46.67 %(28/60) in dogs, humans, and monkeys, respectively. The prevalence was significantly higher in 6-month-old dogs (41.53 %) and children (7.69 %) than in older dogs (14.39 %) and adults (0 %) (P < 0.05). Sequencing of amplicons revealed that four variable positions separated sequences into three types, called CC1-3. CC1 was the most prevalent in the study population. This study determined that P. hominis infection is common in dogs, monkeys, and humans, especially in children and young dogs. Given the infection prevalence, P. hominis may pose a risk of zoonotic and anthroponotic transmission.
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Acknowledgments
We thank our staff for their assistance with this study. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 30970322), the Major Program of Anhui Province Education Department (KJ2014ZD09), the Key Program of Anhui Province Education Department (KJ2015A189), the Key Program of Anhui Science and Technology University (ZRC2014406), and the Key Discipline Construction Program of Anhui Science and Technology University (AKZDXK2015A04).We declare that the experiments complied with the current laws of China at time of administration.
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Wen-Chao Li, Meng Ying and Peng-Tao Gong contributed equally to this work.
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Li, WC., Ying, M., Gong, PT. et al. Pentatrichomonas hominis: prevalence and molecular characterization in humans, dogs, and monkeys in Northern China. Parasitol Res 115, 569–574 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4773-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4773-8