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Prevalence and subtype diversity of Blastocystis in human and nonhuman primates in North China

  • Genetics, Evolution, and Phylogeny - Short Communication
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Abstract

Blastocystis is of public health concern due to its global distribution in diverse animals including humans. Here, fecal specimens sampled from human and nonhuman primates were examined for Blastocystis by PCR and sequence analysis of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene. Among age cohorts, the parasite was positive only for three of 126 (2.4%) adults admitted to a hospital in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, with a less common human subtype (ST), ST5, determined. Blastocystis was identified in 7.0% of nonhuman primates (NHPs), giving an infection rate of 6.8% (4/59) to zoo NHPs in Harbin and 7.1% (9/126) to lab NHPs in Beijing. No significant prevalence differences by macaque species, age, gender, and sample source were observed. Among the subtypes found in NHPs, seven belonged to ST1, three to ST2, one to ST3, and the remaining two to mixed ST1/ST3 and ST2/ST3. Although the data here showed no direct evidence linking human infections to Blastocystis of NHP origin, individuals might acquire colonization of ST5 from livestock sources judged by occurrence of this subtype also in cattle in Harbin and pigs and sheep in unspecified cities of Heilongjiang as noted in previous reports. In addition, given the nonrigid (but sometimes, perhaps cryptic) host specificity of ST1, ST2, and ST3 and their dominant role in human affections globally as discussed in a previous NHP report by Alfellani et al. (Parasitology 140:966-971, 2013a), precautions should be taken to minimize the possible transmission of those subtypes from NHPs to humans in North China.

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Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2017YFD0501300) and the Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Research Fund (no. LBH-Q19011).

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Author notes

  1. Weining Zhu and Ziyan Wei contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heilongjiang Key Laboratory for Zoonosis, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, 600 Changjiang Road, Harbin, 150030, Heilongjiang, China

    Weining Zhu, Ziyan Wei, Qiao Li, Yongchao Lin, Hang Yang & Wei Li

Authors
  1. Weining Zhu
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  2. Ziyan Wei
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  3. Qiao Li
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  4. Yongchao Lin
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  5. Hang Yang
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  6. Wei Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Li.

Ethics declarations

This study was performed in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Use of Human and Nonhuman Animal Clinical Specimens of the Ministry of Health, China. The protocol of the current study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Review Committee and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Northeast Agricultural University, under the approved protocol numbers SRM-05 and SRM-08, respectively. All individuals were informed of the objectives, procedures, and potential risks of the study. Written informed consent was personally signed by all adult subjects. Parents or guardians were asked to provide written consent on behalf of child participants. The personal information of all individuals has remained confidential. For NHP specimen collection, we obtained permissions from animal owners. No specific permits were required for the described field studies. And the locations where we sampled are not privately owned or protected in any way. The field studies did not involve endangered or protected species.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Section Editor: Yaoyu Feng

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Zhu, W., Wei, Z., Li, Q. et al. Prevalence and subtype diversity of Blastocystis in human and nonhuman primates in North China. Parasitol Res 119, 2719–2725 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06761-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06761-w

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