Abstract
Giardia duodenalis is a common and widespread intestinal protozoan parasite of both humans and animals. Previous epidemiological and molecular studies have identified Giardia infections in different animals and humans, but only limited information is available about the occurrence and genotypes of Giardia in cattle in China. In this study, we determined the occurrence of giardiasis and genetically characterized G. duodenalis in dairy cattle in Henan Province, central China. The overall prevalence of G. duodenalis was 7.2% (128/1777) on microscopic analysis, with the highest infection rate (22.7%) in calves aged less than 1 month. G. duodenalis assemblages and subtypes were identified with multilocus genotyping based on the SSU rRNA, β-giardin (bg), glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), and triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) genes. Two assemblages were detected in the successfully sequenced samples: assemblage A (n = 58), assemblage E (n = 21), with a mixed E and A assemblage (n = 2). Four novel subtypes of the gdh gene and seven of the bg gene were found among the G. duodenalis assemblage E isolates. Using the nomenclature for the multilocus genotype (MLG) model, nine novel multilocus genotypes E (MLGs E1–E9) and three MLGs A (a novel subtype AI, previously detected subtype AII-1, and a combination of both) were identified. MLG AII-1 identified in this study may be an important zoonotic subtype. The dairy cattle in Henan are a potential public health concern.
Highlights
IntroductionG. lamblia, G. intestinalis) is a common protozoan in cattle worldwide
The overall infection rate of G. duodenalis in cattle, ranging from newborn to 2 years old, was 7.2% (128/1777), which is a little higher than that recently reported in same-aged cattle in Heilongjiang Province, China (6.4%, 41/643) [24]
It is difficult to explain the actual difference between the prevalence of G. duodenalis in this study and those in other countries, such as the United States (44%), Canada (42.0%), Galicia (30.1%), Denmark (43.6%), Belgium (31.3%), Vietnam (10.2%), and New Zealand (31.0%) [8,11,15,30,31,32,33]
Summary
G. lamblia, G. intestinalis) is a common protozoan in cattle worldwide. It often presents no or mild symptoms in adult cattle, but clinical manifestations of diarrhea, weight loss, and malabsorption can present in calves [1]. Molecular studies have confirmed that G. duodenalis is a species complex, comprising eight distinct assemblages/genotypes (A–H) [4,5] that appear to have different host ranges. Of these assemblages, only A and B infect humans [6,7]. Assemblage A or B is occasionally reported to be the most common genotype in Italy, Canada, and New Zealand [14,15,16]
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