Prevalence and Multilocus Genotyping of Giardia lamblia in Cattle in Jiangxi Province, China: Novel Assemblage E Subtypes Identified

Abstract

<i>Giardia lamblia</i> is a common enteric pathogen associated with diarrheal diseases. There are some reports of <i>G. lamblia</i> infection among different breeds of cattle in recent years worldwide. However, it is yet to know whether cattle in Jiangxi province, southeastern China is infected with <i>G. lamblia</i>. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the prevalence and examine the multilocus genotypes of <i>G. lamblia</i> in cattle in Jiangxi province. A total of 556 fecal samples were collected from 3 cattle breeds (dairy cattle, beef cattle, and buffalo) in Jiangxi province, and the prevalence and genotypes of <i>G. lamblia</i> were determined by the nested PCR amplification of the beta-giardin (<i>bg</i>) gene. A total of 52 samples (9.2%) were positive for <i>G. lamblia</i>. The highest prevalence of <i>G. lamblia</i> was detected in dairy cattle (20.0%), followed by that in beef cattle (6.4%), and meat buffalo (0.9%). Multilocus sequence typing of <i>G. lamblia</i> was performed based on sequences of the <i>bg</i>, triose phosphate isomerase and glutamate dehydrogenase loci, and 22, 42, and 52 samples were amplifiable, respectively, forming 15 MLGs. Moreover, one mixed <i>G. lamblia</i> infection (assemblages A and E) was found in the present study. Altogether, 6 novel assemblage E subtypes (E41*-E46*) were identified for the first time. These results not only provided baseline data for the control of <i>G. lamblia</i> infection in cattle in this southeastern province of China, but also enriched the molecular epidemiological data and genetic diversity of <i>G. lamblia</i> in cattle.

Multilocus Genotyping of Giardia duodenalis Occurring in Korean Native Calves

“…G. duodenalis was more prevalent in calves aged ≥1 month (14.6%) than in those aged <1 month (2.7%). This result was in line with the findings of previous studies in China in 2016 and 2020, which reported the highest prevalence of G. duodenalis infection in calves aged 1–3 months (19.6% and 10.7%, respectively) [ 19 , 23 ]. Thus, given that neonatal calf diarrhea commonly occurs in calves at around 2 weeks of age, G. duodenalis may not be the main pathogen responsible for this disease in these animals [ 24 ].…”

“…The present study (2019–2020) indicated that 5.6% of the tested Korean native calves were infected with G. duodenalis , which is lower than the number of calves reportedly infected in 2013–2015 (13.1%, n = 590) and 2017 (10.0%, n = 90) [ 12 , 13 ]. The rate of infection (5.6%) observed in this study was also lower than that reported from other countries, including the United States (44%), Belgium (31.3%), Egypt (13.3%), Vietnam (10.2%), China (9.2%), and Thailand (6.0%) [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. These differences may be ascribed to the fact that the determinants of infection rates are varied and affected by many factors, including the geoecological conditions, diagnostic methods, sample size, sample collection period, and age of the sampled animals [ 6 , 12 , 22 ].…”

“…Therefore, continuous monitoring is needed to detect emerging novel types of G. duodenalis and obtain updated genetic information to prevent the outbreak of infections caused by a novel G. duodenalis strain. Moreover, many recent studies commonly performed multilocus genotyping with three genes, namely bg , gdh , and triose phosphate isomerase ( tpi ), which could identify multilocus genotypes (MLGs) of G. duodenalis [ 19 , 23 ]. Thus, further experiments with tpi sequencing are needed to reveal the MLGs of G. duodenalis from Korean native calves.…”

Giardia duodenalis in Hu sheep: occurrence and environmental contamination on large-scale housing farms

“…Other samples were mixed infections of assemblages A and E (Table 5). Phylogenetic analysis showed that all assemblage E MLGs were significantly different from those reported previously [23,33] for G. duodenalis (Fig. 1).…”

“…The 72 assemblage E gdh locus sequences were classified into eight subtypes according to GenBank sequence KY711410, including four known (E46, E50, E51, and E52) and four new subtypes (E53, E54, E55, and E56) (Table 3). Four subtypes were identified from the 70 assemblage E tpi locus sequences using the reference sequence MF095054, including three previously unnamed subtypes, E57, E58, and E59, and one novel subtype, E60 (Table 3) [23].…”