Abstract
Giardia duodenalis is a flagellated zoonotic parasite that can infect various animals and humans, causing economic losses in husbandry and detriments to public health. Although it has been reported in pigs worldwide, there are few reports on the prevalence and assemblages of G. duodenalis infection in pigs in China. In this study, the 396 pig fecal samples were randomly collected from seven farms in Zhejiang, Guangdong and Yunnan provinces in southern China, and were examined by means of the nested PCR amplification of β-giardin (bg), glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), and triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) for the detection of G. duodenalis. Overall, 21 fecal samples were positive for G. duodenalis, with a prevalence of 5.3%. Three risk factors are associated with G. duodenalis infection, namely, region, age and gender. Moreover, 13, six and two samples were successfully amplified at the bg, gdh and tpi gene loci, respectively. Three assemblages of G. duodenalis were identified, including assemblage E (n = 17), assemblage A (n = 3) and assemblage B (n = 1). Assemblage E was the dominating genotype and was distributed in three provinces. These assemblages of G. duodenalis have also been found in human beings, non-human primates, sheep, goats and cattle, which further reveals that farmed pigs pose a potential threat to public health.
Highlights
Giardia duodenalis is a ubiquitous zoonotic intestinal parasite of animals and humans [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The pigs infected with G. duodenalis infection may result in self-limited illness with weight loss and malabsorption, causing a decline in pig production
The various prevalences of G. duodenalis in pigs in these reports could be caused by regional differences, but differences in management methods, the number of samples and sampling seasons could affect these results
Summary
Giardia duodenalis is a ubiquitous zoonotic intestinal parasite of animals and humans [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Giardiasis has been classified as a neglected parasitic disease by the WHO since 2004 [7]. G. duodenalis is known to cause infection in both humans and animals. While most of the infections are asymptomatic, infection in immunocompromised hosts causes diarrhea, vomiting and weight loss [8]. G. duodenalis is transmitted through the ingestion of food and water contaminated with cysts [9], or direct transmission. Microscopy remains the method of choice for detecting Giardia; PCR analysis has a higher sensitivity [10,11]
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