PLoS ONE (Jan 2018)

Occurrence and genetic characterization of Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. from adult goats in Sichuan Province, China.

  • Zhijun Zhong,
  • Rui Tu,
  • Hongping Ou,
  • Guangwen Yan,
  • Jiaming Dan,
  • Qicheng Xiao,
  • Ya Wang,
  • Suizhong Cao,
  • Liuhong Shen,
  • Junliang Deng,
  • Zhicai Zuo,
  • Xiaoping Ma,
  • Ziyao Zhou,
  • Haifeng Liu,
  • Shumin Yu,
  • Zhihua Ren,
  • Yanchun Hu,
  • Guangneng Peng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199325
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 6
p. e0199325

Abstract

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Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. are common gastrointestinal protozoa in mammals. Many studies have been conducted on the distribution of G. duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. genotypes in sheep and cattle. However, in China, information about molecular characterization and genetic analysis of G. duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. in goats is limited. In this study, 342 fecal samples from adult goats were collected from 12 farms in Sichuan Province, China. The occurrence of G. duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. in adult goats was 14.9% (51/342) and 4.7% (16/342), respectively. All G. duodenalis were identified as assemblage E, with two novel genotypes (assemblages E17 and E18) being detected at the beta-giardin (bg) locus. Based on three loci-beta-giardin (bg), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi), and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh)-multilocus sequence typing revealed three novel multilocus genotypes (MLGs) of assemblage E (MLG-E1, E2, E3 (sc)). Small Subunit (SSU) rRNA-based PCR identified two Cryptosporidium species, namely C. xiaoi (11/16) and C. suis (5/16). This study is not only the first to report C. suis infection in adult goats in China but is also the first to use the MLG approach to identify G. duodenalis in adult goats.