Abstract
Cryptosporidiumfelis is an important cause of feline and human cryptosporidiosis. However, the transmission of this pathogen between humans and cats remains controversial, partially due to a lack of genetic characterization of isolates from cats. The present study was conducted to examine the genetic diversity of C. felis in cats in China and to assess their potential zoonotic transmission. A newly developed subtyping tool based on a sequence analysis of the 60-kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene was employed to identify the subtypes of 30 cat-derived C. felis isolates from Guangdong and Shanghai. Altogether, 20 C. felis isolates were successfully subtyped. The results of the sequence alignment showed a high genetic diversity, with 13 novel subtypes and 2 known subtypes of the XIXa subtype family being identified. The known subtypes were previously detected in humans, while some of the subtypes formed well-supported subclusters with human-derived subtypes from other countries in a phylogenetic analysis of the gp60 sequences. The results of this study confirmed the high genetic diversity of the XIXa subtype family of C. felis. The common occurrence of this subtype family in both humans and cats suggests that there could be cross-species transmission of C. felis.
Highlights
Cryptosporidium spp. are important apicomplexan parasites inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of humans and other vertebrates, causing severe diarrhea [1]
Subtyping tools based on sequence analysis of the 60-kDa glycoprotein gene have been developed for human-pathogenic Cryptosporidium spp. to track infection sources [10]
Among the 30 DNA preparations that were positive for C. felis based on nested PCR analysis of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene, 20 (66.7%) generated the expected products in the gp60 PCR
Summary
Cryptosporidium spp. are important apicomplexan parasites inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of humans and other vertebrates, causing severe diarrhea [1]. Human cryptosporidiosis has been associated with over 20 Cryptosporidium species, but C. hominis, C. parvum, C. meleagridis, C. felis, and C. canis are the most common ones [2]. The gp60-based subtyping tools are available for C. hominis, C. parvum, C. meleagridis, C. ubiquitum, C. viatorum, Cryptosporidium skunk genotype, and Cryptosporidium chipmunk genotype I [11,12,13,14,15,16]. These subtyping methods have been used in characterizing the transmission of these Cryptosporidium spp. in humans and animals [3]
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