Abstract
Background Giardia intestinalis is one of the most common diarrhea-related parasites in humans, where infection ranges from asymptomatic to acute or chronic disease. G. intestinalis consists of eight genetically distinct genotypes or assemblages, designated A–H, and assemblages A and B can infect humans. Giardiasis has been classified as a possible zoonotic disease but the role of animals in human disease transmission still needs to be proven. We tried to link different assemblages and sub-assemblages of G. intestinalis isolates from Swedish human patients to clinical symptoms and zoonotic transmission.Methodology/Principal FindingsMultilocus sequence-based genotyping of 207 human Giardia isolates using three gene loci: ß-giardin, glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), and triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) was combined with assemblage-specific tpi PCRs. This analysis identified 73 patients infected with assemblage A, 128 with assemblage B, and six with mixed assemblages A+B. Multilocus genotypes (MLGs) were easily determined for the assemblage A isolates, and most patients with this genotype had apparently been infected through anthroponotic transmission. However, we also found evidence of limited zoonotic transmission of Giardia in Sweden, since a few domestic human infections involved the same assemblage A MLGs previously reported in Swedish cats and ruminants. Assemblage B was detected more frequently than assemblage A and it was also more common in patients with suspected treatment failure. However, a large genetic variability made determination of assemblage B MLGs problematic. Correlation between symptoms and assemblages was found only for flatulence, which was significantly more common in children less than six years of age infected with assemblage B.Conclusions/SignificanceThis study shows that certain assemblage A subtypes are potentially zoonotic and that flatulence is connected to assemblage B infections in young children. Determination of MLGs from assemblages A and B can be a valuable tool in outbreak situations and to help identify possible zoonotic transmission.
Highlights
Giardia intestinalis is a protozoan parasite that infects a wide array of vertebrates, including humans, pets, livestock, wildlife, and marine animals [1,2]
Giardiasis has been classified as a possible zoonotic infection by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1979 [6], and studies conducted in India and Thailand [7,8] have suggested zoonotic transmission of Giardia; the role of animals in human disease transmission still needs to be proven [9,10,11]
Giardia intestinalis is a protozoan parasite found worldwide and it is a major cause of diarrhea in humans and other mammals
Summary
Giardia intestinalis (synonyms: G. lamblia, G. duodenalis) is a protozoan parasite that infects a wide array of vertebrates, including humans, pets, livestock, wildlife, and marine animals [1,2]. Giardiasis has been classified as a possible zoonotic infection by the WHO since 1979 [6], and studies conducted in India and Thailand [7,8] have suggested zoonotic transmission of Giardia; the role of animals in human disease transmission still needs to be proven [9,10,11]. Several investigations have tried to link the severity of infection to a certain assemblage, but the results have been inconclusive [12,13,14,15,16] Most of those studies relied on genotyping using only one or two genetic markers, such as the small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA), ß-giardin, glutamate. Giardia intestinalis is one of the most common diarrhea-related parasites in humans, where infection ranges from asymptomatic to acute or chronic disease. We tried to link different assemblages and sub-assemblages of G. intestinalis isolates from Swedish human patients to clinical symptoms and zoonotic transmission
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