Molecular Detection of Microsporidia in Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Abstract

Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon spp. are microsporidia with zoonotic potential that have been identified in humans, as well as in a large group of wild and domestic animals. Several wildlife species have been studied as reservoirs of zoonotic microsporidia in mainland Spain, including the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Due to a lack of data on microsporidia infection in wildlife on the Canary Islands, the aim of this work was to analyze the prevalence and identify the species of microsporidia in rabbits in Tenerife. Between 2015 and 2017, a total of 50 fecal samples were collected from rabbits in eight municipalities of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Seven of the fifty samples (14%) were amplified using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the partial sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, and the partial sequence of the 5.8S rRNA gene. Sanger sequencing reveals the presence of Encephalitozoon cuniculi genotype I in two samples (4%), and undescribed microsporidia species in five samples (10%). This study constitutes the first molecular detection and genotyping of E. cuniculi in rabbits in Spain.

High Prevalence of Microsporidia in the North African Hedgehog (Atelerix algirus) in the Canary Islands, Spain

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to detect E. cuniculi in hedgehogs. The prevalence obtained (5.6%; 2/36) was similar to that recently reported in fecal samples from European rabbits in Tenerife (4.0%; 2/50) [61]. Genotype I of E. cuniculi has been the only genotype detected in animal hosts in Spain to date [60,61], and the species is less frequent in this country, with a few cases in humans [40][41][42].…”

“…Encephalitozoon intestinalis is the second most frequent species in animals. It has been reported in domestic cats [45], wildlife rabbits and hares [47,58], pigeons from parks [53], and farmed pigs and ostriches [45], whereas there are only a few reports of E. hellem [53,59] and E. cuniculi [50,60,61].…”

“…Genotype I of E. cuniculi has been the only genotype detected in animal hosts in Spain to date [60,61], and the species is less frequent in this country, with a few cases in humans [40][41][42]. However, molecular detection in water sources, in addition to serological analysis of domestic and wild animals, demonstrates the presence of this parasite in the environment [50,61,62].…”

“…Considering that the diet of hedgehogs is mainly based on Coleoptera [63] and numerous species of microsporidia have been described as insect parasites [64], the undetermined species detected in fecal samples of hedgehogs are suspected to be microsporidia species infecting invertebrate hosts. Other studies have also detected undetermined species using molecular methods [45,61,62].…”