Abstract
Background Enterocytozoon bieneusi is one of the most prevalent causative species of diarrhea and enteric diseases in various hosts. E. bieneusi has been identified in humans, mammals, birds, rodents and reptiles in China, but few studies have reported E. bieneusi in horses. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess the prevalence, molecular characteristics and zoonotic potential of E. bieneusi among horses in southwestern China.FindingsThree hundred and thirty-three fecal specimens were collected from horses on five farms in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of southwestern China. The prevalence of E. bieneusi was 22.5 % (75/333), as determined by nested polymerase chain reaction and sequencing analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal RNA gene of E. bieneusi. Altogether, 10 genotypes were identified among the 75 E. bieneusi-positive samples: four of these genotypes were known (horse1, horse2, SC02 and D) and six were novel (SCH1-4 and YNH1-2). Multilocus sequence typing using three microsatellites (MS1, MS3 and MS7) and one minisatellite (MS4) revealed three, two, three and three genotypes at these four loci, respectively. In phylogenetic analysis, all the genotypes of E. bieneusi obtained in this study were clustered into three distinct groups: D, SC02 and SCH1-3 were clustered into group 1 (zoonotic potential); SCH4 was clustered into group 2 (cattle-hosted); whereas horse2, YNH1 and YNH2 were clustered into group 6 (unclear zoonotic potential).ConclusionsThis is the first report of E. bieneusi among horses in southwestern China. This is also the first multilocus genotyping analysis using microsatellite and minisatellite markers of E. bieneusi in horses. The presence of genotype D, which was previously identified in humans, and genotypes SC02 and SCH1-3, which belong to potential zoonotic group 1, these results indicate that horses are a potential source of human E. bieneusi infections in China.
Highlights
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is one of the most prevalent causative species of diarrhea and enteric diseases in various hosts
The presence of genotype D, which was previously identified in humans, and genotypes SC02 and SCH1-3, which belong to potential zoonotic group 1, these results indicate that horses are a potential source of human E. bieneusi infections in China
Horses at every tested farm showed evidence of E. bieneusi prevalence (Table 1), with the highest prevalence in Farm 5 (29.1 %), which serves as a supplier of horses to other farms; the horses at Farm 5 spent most of their time on the pasture
Summary
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is one of the most prevalent causative species of diarrhea and enteric diseases in various hosts. E. bieneusi has been identified in humans, mammals, birds, rodents and reptiles in China, but few studies have reported E. bieneusi in horses. The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence, molecular characteristics and zoonotic potential of E. bieneusi among horses in southwestern China. Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene has been generally regarded as a standard method for the genotyping of E. bieneusi isolates in humans and animals [3, 8]. More than 240 genotypes have been identified in various animal hosts [6, 9]. A large cluster (group 1) includes 94 % of the published genotypes of E. bieneusi, and has been established to have zoonotic potential [12]. To better understand the taxonomy and molecular characteristics of E. bieneusi, high-resolution multilocus sequence typing (MLST) using three microsatellites (MS1, MS3 and MS7) and one minisatellite (MS4) as markers was developed [15]
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