Occurrence, genetic diversity and zoonotic potential of Blastocystis sp. in forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) in Southwest China

Abstract

Blastocystis sp. is a common anaerobic protist with controversial pathogenicity that can infect various animals and humans. However, there are no reports of Blastocystis sp. infections in forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii). The present study was designed to examine the occurrence, subtype distribution and genetic characterization of Blastocystis sp. in forest musk deer in southwestern China, and to assess the potential for zoonotic transmission. A total of 504 fresh stool samples were collected from captive forest musk deer in four distinct areas of southwestern China. Overall, 14.7% of the forest musk deer (74/504) were found to be infected with Blastocystis sp. The highest occurrence of Blastocystis sp. was observed in Dujiangyan (27.5%), followed by Maerkang (23.3%). The occurrence of Blastocystis sp. was 7.9% and 4.1% in Shimian and Hanyuan, respectively. Significant differences in the occurrence of Blastocystis sp. among different areas were observed (p < 0.05), while we did not observe significant differences among animals of different age and sex (p > 0.05). Two known zoonotic subtypes (ST1 and ST5) and three animal-predominant subtypes (ST10, ST13, and ST14) were identified, of which ST10 was the most common (36/74, 48.6%). Our findings highlight that forest musk deer may be potential reservoirs of zoonotic human Blastocystis sp. infections.

Marked genetic diversity within Blastocystis in Australian wildlife revealed using a next generation sequencing–phylogenetic approach

“…Clearly, caution is warranted in making conclusions about an affiliation with a particular animal species in a captive environment, such as in parks, zoos or breeding/production facilities, due to cross transmission events of Blastocystis among species. There are also reports of ST13 in cervids in China, South Korea and UK ( Alfellani et al, 2013 ; Betts et al, 2018 ; Wang et al, 2018 ; Kim et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2021 , 2022 ) and from primates in Bangladesh, China and Poland ( Li et al, 2019 ; Rudzińska et al, 2021 ; Geng, 2021- unpublished; Li et al, 2022 - unpublished), but none of these studies has provided sequence for >80% of the SSU-rRNA gene. Other key STs recorded in kangaroos and wallabies in previous studies include ST12, in the western grey kangaroo and northern swamp wallaby from zoos ( Parkar et al, 2010 ) and ST16, in red kangaroos from a zoo (Yoshikawa, 2011 - unpublished) (cf.…”