Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Minks (Neovison vison) in Northern China: A Public Health Concern

Abstract

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the most important causative agent of microsporidiosis and can infect almost all vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, including minks (Neovison vison). In the present study, a total of 298 feces samples (including 79 from Heilongjiang province, 31 from Hebei province, 67 from Jilin province, 90 from Liaoning province, and 31 from Shandong province, Northern China) were examined by nested PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene. The overall prevalence of E. bieneusi in minks was 10.1%, with 10.5% in Jilin province, 32.3% in Hebei province, 8.9% in Liaoning province, 0% in Shandong province, and 6.3% in Heilongjiang province. Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that region was only risk factors associated with E. bieneusi infection in the investigated minks. Five E. bieneusi ITS genotypes (three known genotypes, namely D, Peru11, and EbpC; two novel genotypes, namely, NCM-1 and NCM-2) were found in the current study. Importantly, genotypes D, Peru11 and EbpC, previously identified in humans, were also found in minks, which suggested that minks are the potential sources of human microsporidiosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of E. bieneusi infection in minks worldwide. The results of the present survey have implications for the controlling E. bieneusi infection in minks, other animals and humans.

First detection and genotyping of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pet fancy rats (Rattus norvegicus) and guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) in China

“…In the present study, genotype Peru11, a zoonotic genotype, was identified in pet fancy rats for the first time. This genotype has been found previously in humans in Peru, China and Thailand, non-human primates in Kenya and China, raccoons, voles and cottontails in the United States, chickens in Brazil, cats in Spain, and minks and water in China [4,5,17,33]. Genotype SCC-2 was reported previously in pet chipmunks and squirrels in China [6,8], and was found in pet fancy rats for the first time.…”

“…In China, genotype D has been identified in immunocompromized patients and in children with diarrhea [18,[27][28][29]32]. Genotype D has also been identified in a wide range of animal hosts in China, including non-human primates, rodents (mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, chinchillas, and bamboo rats), other mammals (pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas, horses, donkeys, rabbits, dogs, cats, foxes, deer, takins, minks, raccoon dogs, raccoons, lions, and hippos), and birds, as well as in water samples [6,8,9,11,17,24,26,30,31,33,34].…”

Zoonotic parasites in farmed exotic animals in China: Implications to public health

“…Unlike the case with Cryptosporidium spp. and G. duodenalis , there were no consistent age-associated differences in infection rates of E. bieneusi , which was detected at high frequency in all age groups of animals sampled in most studies ( Chen et al, 2019b ; Ma et al, 2020a , 2020b ; Yang et al, 2015 ; Ye et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2016b , 2018 ). Crab-eating macaques with diarrhea were reported to have higher infections rates than those with normal stools ( Chen et al, 2019b ).…”

“…Similarly, some nonhuman primates such as crab-eating and rhesus macaques are farmed as laboratory animals and bamboo rats for food ( Chen et al, 2019a ; Li et al, 2020a ). As they are recently domesticated wild mammals, concerns have been raised about their potential to transmit human pathogenic parasites ( Wang et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2015 , 2017 ; Zhang et al, 2018 ). In the present report, we have summarized data from recent molecular epidemiological studies of Cryptosporidium spp., G. duodenalis , and E. bieneusi for improved understanding of the public health significance of the pathogens in these farmed exotic animals.…”

First report of Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Cryptosporidium spp. in peafowl (Pavo cristatus) in China

“…Nucleotide sequences obtained in the present study were aligned with reference sequences available in GenBank database with the ClustalX 1.83 software package was implemented to determine the genotypes of E. bieneusi and Cryptosporidium spp. Phylogenetic analysis was implemented with MEGA 6.0 (Tamura et al, 2013) using the Neighbor-joining algorithm in a Kimura2-parameter model, and the branch reliability was analyzed using a bootstrap of 1000 replicates (Zhang et al, 2018a).…”