Prevalence and Genetic Identification of Three Entamoeba Species in Pigs in Southeastern China

Abstract

Parasitic Entamoeba spp. can infect many classes of vertebrates including humans and pigs. Entamoeba suis and zoonotic Entamoeba polecki have been identified in pigs, and swine are implicated as potential reservoirs for Entamoeba histolytica. However, the prevalence of Entamoeba spp. in pigs in southeastern China has not been reported. In this study, 668 fecal samples collected from 6 different regions in Fujian Province, southeastern China, were analyzed to identify three Entamoeba species by nested PCR and sequencing analysis. The overall prevalence of Entamoeba spp. was 55.4% (370/668; 95% CI 51.6% to 59.2%), and the infection rate of E. polecki ST1 was the highest (302/668; 45.2%, 95% CI 41.4% to 49.0%), followed by E. polecki ST3 (228/668; 34.1%, 95% CI 30.5% to 37.7%) and E. suis (87/668; 13.0%, 95% CI 10.5% to 15.6%). E. histolytica was not detected in any samples. Moreover, the coinfection rate of E. polecki ST1 and ST3 was 25.1% (168/668; 95% CI 21.9% to 28.4%), the coinfection rate of E. polecki ST1 and E. suis was 3.7% (25/668; 95% CI 2.3% to 5.2%), the coinfection rate of E. polecki ST3 and E. suis was 0.3% (2/668), and the coinfection rate of E. polecki ST1, E. polecki ST3, and E. suis was 4.0% (27/668; 95% CI 2.5% to 5.5%). A representative sequence (MK347346) was identical to the sequence of E. suis (DQ286372). Two subtype-specific sequences (MK357717 and MK347347) were almost identical to the sequences of E. polecki ST1 (FR686383) and ST3 (AJ566411), respectively. This is the first study to survey the occurrence and to conduct molecular identification of three Entamoeba species in southeastern China. This is the first report regarding mixed infections with E. suis, E. polecki ST1, and E. polecki ST3 in China. More research studies are needed to better understand the transmission and zoonotic potential of Entamoeba spp.

Prevalence of Swine Gastrointestinal Parasites in Nyagatare District, Rwanda

“…There are no published studies on fasciolopsis in Rwanda, but it is a food-borne infection, and humans develop it after they eat raw aquatic vegetation or food plants contaminated with metacercariae [ 33 ]. Pigs can develop amoebiasis due to Entamoeba suis and E. polecki , and the latter one is a zoonotic species [ 13 ].…”

Parasitic Intestinal Protists of Zoonotic Relevance Detected in Pigs by Metabarcoding and Real-Time PCR

“…Of note, there was no evidence of Entamoeba suis-specific DNA in the samples. E. suis was observed in 81.1% samples from pigs sampled in West Java, Indonesia [66], while Ji et al observed a considerable lower positive rate (13.0%) for E. suis in pigs sampled in south-eastern China [65]. To our knowledge, E. suis is yet to be reported and confirmed at DNA-level in Europe.…”

“…polecki was divided into four specific subtypes by Verweij et al in 2001 [64], all of which have been isolated from human stool, but which appear to differ in terms of host reservoir specificity. Of these four subtypes, ST1 and ST3 appear to be common in pigs [16,63,65,66]. Meanwhile ST4 has only been found in humans so far, whereas ST2 has been found in non-human primates as well.…”

Diversity, geographical distribution, and prevalence ofEntamoebaspp. in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The genus Entamoeba includes a variety of anaerobic, unicellular, and monoxenic protozoan species adapted to live as parasites or commensals in the digestive tracts of humans and a large variety of animals of different classes [ 5 , 7 , 64 , 110 , 112 , 205 , 206 ].…”

“…The Entamoeba spp. have a variety of vertebrate hosts: E. moshkovskii is found in cattle, elephants, and reptiles [ 94 , 110 ]; E. coli and E. hartmanni are found in non-human primates [ 26 , 57 , 113 , 220 ]; and finally, some studies suggest that different subtypes of E. polecki , infect human, non-human primates, pigs and ostriches [ 41 , 59 , 76 , 84 , 112 ].…”