Prevalence and Genotype Distribution of Giardia duodenalis in Rabbits in Shandong Province, Eastern China

Abstract

Giardia duodenalis is a zoonotic enteric parasite that can infect humans and a number of animal species including rabbits with a worldwide distribution. Infection with G. duodenalis can cause serious public health problems and significant economic losses to animal husbandry. So accurate understanding of the prevalence and genotype distribution of G. duodenalis in rabbits is necessary. In the present study, a total of 616 fecal samples were collected from rabbits in Shandong province, eastern China, and examined in G. duodenalis prevalence and genotypes by nested PCR amplification of β-giardin (bg), glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), and triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) gene loci of G. duodenalis. Sixty-nine (11.2%) of the examined rabbit fecal samples were G. duodenalis-positive. Of them, the prevalence of G. duodenalis is 8.4% (41/490) in Rizhao city and 22.2% (28/126) in Weihai city. Breeds, region, and feeding modes were highly correlated with G. duodenalis infection in rabbits. Moreover, three genotypes

Prevalence and multi-locus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in rabbits from Shaanxi province in northwestern China

“…This is in the range of prevalence for G. duodenalis infection, but lower than most previous studies, e.g. 8.40% in Henan [56], 7.41% in Heilongjiang [70], 7.60% in Europe [51], 13.79% in Jilin [30], 11.20% in Shandong [41], and 72.30% in Nigeria [3]. However, it was higher than that detected in Liaoning (1.47%) [30] and Xinjiang (1.90%) [71].…”

“…A previous study in Shandong used the same target gene as this study to detect prevalence, with higher prevalence (11.2%) than that detected here [41]. This difference may reflect the different breeds studied, as Long-haired and New Zealand white rabbits were studied in Shandong, but Rex and IRA rabbits were tested in Shaanxi [41]. Feeding practices may alter prevalence, with lower rates of infection in indoors rabbits (4.57%) than in outdoors rabbits (23.08%) in Shandong [41].…”

“…Additionally, the rabbits studied in Nigeria were raised in close proximity to other animal species (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry), which may increase G. duodenalis infection. A previous study in Shandong used the same target gene as this study to detect prevalence, with higher prevalence (11.2%) than that detected here [41]. This difference may reflect the different breeds studied, as Long-haired and New Zealand white rabbits were studied in Shandong, but Rex and IRA rabbits were tested in Shaanxi [41].…”

“…However, rabbits can carry zoonotic pathogens, including G. duodenalis [56,65]. The infection rate of G. duodenalis ranges from 1.90% to 72.30% [3,31,41,42,50,56,70,71]. Three assemblages have been identified in rabbits, A, B and E, and all are potential sources of infection for humans [3,27,29,41,55,70,71], suggesting a potential role of rabbits in the transmission of G. duodenalis.…”

“…In Shaanxi Province, rabbit breeding is increasing in prevalence, with local farms and larger agricultural companies. However, to date there have been only six reports on G. duodenalis infection from six Chinese provinces (Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Henan, Jilin, and Shandong) [30,41,42,56,70,71]. In this study, the prevalence and genetic diversity of G. duodenalis in farmed rabbits from Shaanxi province were investigated using a multilocus genotyping tool [11,43,67].…”