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High diversity of human-pathogenic Enterocytozoon bieneusi genotypes in swine in northeast China

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Abstract

Despite the advances in defining Enterocytozoon bieneusi genotypes worldwide, rare genotypic surveys have been documented on this ubiquitous pathogenic protozoan in mammals in China, especially the role of pigs in zoonotic transmission of microsporidiosis remains unclear. In this study, the distribution of E. bieneusi genotypes in 113 duodenal mucosal specimens of pigs with acute diarrhea from 15 cities in northeast China was determined by PCR and DNA sequence analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer. The organism was detected in 51 (45.1 %) pigs from 12 cities, with infection rates of the nursery pigs (21/33, 63.6 %) significantly higher than the preweaned (25/61, 41.0 %; P < 0.05) and the growing (5/19, 26.3 %; P < 0.01) ones. E. bieneusi belongs to nine known human-pathogenic genotypes (D, EbpA, EbpC, EbpD, H, Henan-I, Henan-III, Henan-IV, and O) and eight new genotypes (CS-1 to CS-8). Genotypes D, EbpA, EbpC, EbpD, Henan-I, Henan-III, and Henan-IV have been found in human infections and D, EbpA, EbpC, and EbpD in wastewater in central China. The new genotypes were genetically clustered into a group of existing E. bieneusi genotypes with zoonotic potential. Considering the discovery of a high prevalence and wide genetic diversity of E. bieneusi zoonotic strains in pigs in northeast China and the co-occurrence of seven known genotypes in pigs and humans and four in pigs and wastewater, pigs probably served as a reservoir for human microsporidiosis and an important source of water contamination in China.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31302081), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (no. QC2013C015), and the 54th Postdoctoral Scientific Foundation of China (no. 2013M540266).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, 59 Mucai Street, Harbin, 150030, China

    Wei Li, Ruinan Diao, Jinping Yang, Yixin Lu, Yijing Li & Mingxin Song

  2. Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Lihua Xiao

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  1. Wei Li
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  2. Ruinan Diao
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  3. Jinping Yang
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  4. Lihua Xiao
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  5. Yixin Lu
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  6. Yijing Li
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  7. Mingxin Song
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Correspondence to Yijing Li or Mingxin Song.

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Li, W., Diao, R., Yang, J. et al. High diversity of human-pathogenic Enterocytozoon bieneusi genotypes in swine in northeast China. Parasitol Res 113, 1147–1153 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-3752-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-3752-9

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