Abstract
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the most common species of microsporidia found both in humans and animals. Farmed animals, particularly closely associated to humans, may play an important role of zoonotic reservoir in transmitting this disease to humans. The fur industry is a major economic component in some parts of China. To understand the prevalence, genotype variety and zoonotic risk of E. bieneusi in farmed foxes and raccoon dogs, two species of fur animals, fecal specimens of 110 blue foxes and 49 raccoon dogs from Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in China were examined by internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-based PCR. E. bieneusi was detected in 16.4% (18/110) blue foxes and 4.1% (2/49) raccoon dogs. Altogether, four genotypes of E. bieneusi were identified, including two known genotypes D (n = 13) and EbpC (n = 5), and two novel genotypes named as CHN-F1 (n = 1) in a fox and CHN-R1 (n = 1) in a raccoon dog. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all the four genotypes were the members of zoonotic group 1. Genotypes D and EbpC were found in humans previously. The findings of zoonotic genotypes of E. bieneusi in the foxes and raccoon dogs suggest these animals infected with E. bieneusi may pose a threat to human health.
Highlights
Microsporidia are a phylum of spore-forming unicellular obligate intracellular eukaryotes, which are made up of over 1300 species representing at least 160 genera [1]
Animals infected with E. bieneusi continue transmitting of this disease [20]
Despite the advances in exploring the genotypic and phylogenetic characteristics of E. bieneusi in a wide range of mammals and birds, few genetic studies have been documented in foxes, and none in raccoon dogs
Summary
Microsporidia are a phylum of spore-forming unicellular obligate intracellular eukaryotes, which are made up of over 1300 species representing at least 160 genera [1]. They can be found in almost all the animal phyla and are ubiquitous in the environments [2]. Most human infections of E. bieneusi are thought to result from fecal-oral transmission of spores from infected hosts through contaminated water or food [3]. A food-borne outbreak of microsporidiosis caused by E. bieneusi has been reported in Sweden, which was considered to be probably associated with contaminated fresh produce served to hotel guests [12]. Current epidemiological data of E. bieneusi have raised public health concern about the zoonotic nature, and water- and food-borne transmission of E. bieneusi
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