Occurrence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in captive non-human primates from 12 zoos in China

Abstract

Giardia duodenalis is a common enteric protozoan that infects a range of hosts including humans and other mammals. Multilocus genotyping of G. duodenalis in captive non-human primates (NHPs) from zoos in China is limited. In this study, we evaluated 302 NHP fecal samples collected from 32 different NHP species. The primates were from 12 zoos distributed across eight provinces and two municipalities (Chongqing and Beijing) of China. The overall infection rate was 8.3% (25/302). The six G. duodenalis-positive zoos and their infection rates were: Suzhou Zoo (40.0%, 4/10), Yangzhou Zoo (22.2%, 2/9), Dalian Zoo (16.7%, 4/24), Chengdu Zoo (12.8%, 6/47), Guiyang Forest Wildlife Zoo (12.1%, 7/58), and Changsha Zoo (4.7%, 2/43). Molecular analysis of three loci, beta-giardin (bg), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi), and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), showed high genetic heterogeneity, and seven novel subtypes (BIII-1, MB10-1, WB8-1, B14-1, MB9-1, DN7-1, and BIV-1) were detected within assemblage B. Additional analysis revealed 12 different assemblage B multilocus genotypes (MLGs), one known MLG and 11 novel MLGs. Based on phylogenetic analysis, 12 assemblage B MLGs formed two main clades, MLG-SW (10-12, 18) and MLG-SW (13, 14, 16, 17), the other four MLG-SW (15, 19, 20, 21) were scattered throughout the phylogenetic tree in this study. Using multilocus genotyping, this study expands our understanding of the occurrence of Giardia infection and genetic variation in Giardia in captive non-human primates from zoos in China.

Intestinal Protists in Captive Non-human Primates and Their Handlers in Six European Zoological Gardens. Molecular Evidence of Zoonotic Transmission

“…Our genetic analyses revealed that eight out of 10 G. duodenalis infections were caused by the assemblage B of the parasite, and that all the genetic variants detected (sub-assemblages AI, AII, and BIV) were zoonotic (70). This predominance of assemblage B over assemblage A has been confirmed in other NHP populations from Belgium and the Netherlands (71), China (72)(73)(74), Croatia (65), Italy (66), the Republic of Congo (49), Slovakia (67), Sweden (75), and Thailand (52). However, it should be noted that this trend is far from general, and the opposite result (preponderance of assemblage A over assemblage B) has also been reported in captive NHP belonging to the genera Alouatta and Ateles in Brazil (76,77) and in different NHP collections from Spanish zoological gardens (13,68).…”

Investigation of giardiasis in captive animals in zoological gardens with strain typing of assemblages in China

“…In the current study, the infection rate of NHPs was 17.4% and close to the prevalence in Dalian zoo (16.7%) (Zhang et al ., 2020). It was higher than those reported in Qianling Park in Guiyang (8.5%) (Ye et al ., 2012), Sichuan and Guizhou provinces (7.7%) (Zhong et al ., 2017), Qinling Mountain (2.0%) (Du et al ., 2015) and two other additional comprehensive parasite infection studies in China (2.2 and 1.3%) (Ye et al ., 2012; Li et al ., 2017) Table 3.…”

First report of prevalence and assemblage analysis of Giardia duodenalis in pigs from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China

“…Nested PCR protocols based on multiple-copy genes ( e.g. SSU rRNA ) have higher diagnostic sensitivities than those based on single-copy genes ( bg , gdh , and tpi ) [ 45 ]. Therefore, the SSU rRNA -positive samples not amplified at the other three loci may be due to the limited sensitivity of PCR in detecting the single-copy genes.…”