Occurrence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis from post-weaned dairy calves in Sichuan province, China

PLoS One. 2019 Nov 4;14(11):e0224627. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224627. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Giardia duodenalis is a zoonotic parasitic protist and poses a threat to human and animal health. This study investigated the occurrence of G. duodenalis infection in post-weaned calves from Sichuan province, China. Faecal samples were collected from a total of 306 post-weaned calves (3-12 months old) from 10 farms, including 4 intensive feeding farms and 6 free-ranging farms. The overall infection rate of G. duodenalis was 41.2% (126/306) based on the PCR results at any of the three genetic loci: beta-giardin (bg), triose-phosphate isomerase (tpi) and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) genes. Giardia duodenalis assemblages E (n = 115, 91.3%), A (n = 3, 2.4%), and A mixed with E (n = 8, 6.3%) were identified among the 126 positive specimens. Multilocus sequence typing of G. duodenalis revealed 34 assemblage E multilocus genotypes (MLGs), 1 assemblage A MLG and 7 mixed assemblage (A and E) MLGs. The eBURST data showed a high degree of genetic diversity within assemblage E MLGs. The phylogenetic tree revealed that MLG E3 was the primary MLG subtype in Sichuan province and also the most widely distributed in China.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Cattle Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Cattle Diseases / parasitology
  • China / epidemiology
  • Cytoskeletal Proteins / genetics
  • Feces / parasitology
  • Genetic Loci / genetics
  • Genetic Variation
  • Giardia lamblia / enzymology
  • Giardia lamblia / genetics
  • Giardia lamblia / isolation & purification*
  • Giardiasis / epidemiology
  • Giardiasis / parasitology
  • Giardiasis / transmission
  • Giardiasis / veterinary*
  • Glutamate Dehydrogenase / genetics
  • Humans
  • Multilocus Sequence Typing / veterinary*
  • Protozoan Proteins / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Triose-Phosphate Isomerase / genetics
  • Weaning
  • Zoonoses / epidemiology*
  • Zoonoses / parasitology
  • Zoonoses / transmission

Substances

  • Cytoskeletal Proteins
  • Protozoan Proteins
  • giardin protein, Giardia lamblia
  • Glutamate Dehydrogenase
  • Triose-Phosphate Isomerase

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0500900, 2016YFD0501009) and the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Foundation (CPF2017-05, CPF2015-4).