Microsporidia Detection and Genotyping Study of Human Pathogenic E. bieneusi in Animals from Spain

Abstract

Microsporidia are ubiquitous parasites infecting all animal phyla and we present evidence that supports their zoonotic potential. Fecal samples taken from domestic (cats and dogs), farm (pigs, rabbits and ostriches) and wild animals (foxes) from different provinces of Spain were evaluated for microsporidia infection by light microscopy and PCR. After Microsporidia species identification, E. bieneusi genotypes were additionally studied by sequence analysis of the ITS region. Eighty-five samples out of 159 exhibited structures that were compatible with microsporidia spores by Webeŕs stain with 37 of them being confirmed by PCR. Microsporidia species identified included E. bieneusi, E. intestinalis and A. algerae. We report the first diagnosis of E. intestinalis and E. bieneusi in ostriches and A. algerae in pigs. We also provide new information on the molecular characterization of E. bieneusi isolates both in rabbits and ostriches. All of the E. bieneusi genotypes identified belonged to the zoonotic group of genotypes (Group I) including genotypes A (dogs), I (pigs), D (rabbits and foxes) and type IV (ostriches). Our results demonstrate that microsporidia are present in domestic, farm and wild animals in Spain, corroborating their potential role as a source of human infection and environmental contamination.

First report of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pigs in Brazil

“…The prevalence of E. bieneusi found in this study (59.3%) was higher than those reported in other studies worldwide [18,24,26,40,56,63,66,67,[71][72][73][74], with exception of two studies, one in the Czech Republic, where 94% of 79 pigs were found E. bienesi-positive [37] and one in China, where 83.2% and 89.5% of the 95 pigs studied were positive for E. bienesi using SSU rRNA or ITS genes, respectively [65].…”

Subtyping ofCryptosporidium cuniculusand genotyping ofEnterocytozoon bieneusiin rabbits in two farms in Heilongjiang Province, China

“…Here, E. bieneusi was only found in 14.7% (22/150) of Rex rabbits, and the prevalence was higher than that (0.94%; 4/426) reported in a recent study in China [57]. To our best knowledge, there are another two studies reporting E. bieneusi infections in rabbits, where only a small number of rabbits were involved [11, 13]. The present finding of C ryptosporidium and E. bieneusi in the asymptomatic rabbits emphasized the importance of epidemiological investigations of the two pathogens in these animals.…”

“…Compared to genotypes D and Type IV, genotypes Peru6 and I have a small number and a limited geographical area in human cases infected with E. bieneusi , with the former only found in Peru and Portugal [4, 8, 31, 49], and the latter only in China [56]. In China, to date, genotype Peru6 has been identified in sheep and goats, reindeers, red-crowned cranes, ducks, geese, and pigeons, as well as in wastewater [25, 29, 62, 63]; genotype I has been found in nonhuman primates, cats, a chicken, pigeons, pigs, and golden takins [13, 16, 17, 37, 39, 59, 60]. …”

Zoonotic and Potentially Host-Adapted Enterocytozoon bieneusi Genotypes in Sheep and Cattle in Northeast China and an Increasing Concern about the Zoonotic Importance of Previously Considered Ruminant-Adapted Genotypes

“…These genotypes were previously considered to be highly specific to cattle and genetically segregated from the genotypes found in humans and pigs (20). However, as shown in Table 2, like BEB6, genotypes BEB4, I, and J also have expanded host ranges, with BEB4 also infecting humans from the Czech Republic and pigs from China (11,44), I infecting monkeys from China, deer from the United States, pigs from Spain, and cats from China (35,41,42,45), and J infecting deer from the United States, chickens from Germany, and birds from Iran (35,46,47). A recent survey from Qinghai Province, northwest China, characterized E. bieneusi group 1 genotypes CHN11 (4/23 specimens) and CHN12 (1/23 specimens) and group 2 genotypes BEB4 (16/23 specimens), I (1/23 specimens), and J (1/23 specimens) from 7.0% (23/327 specimens) of yaks (18).…”