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      First identification and molecular subtyping of Blastocystis sp. in zoo animals in southwestern China

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          Abstract

          Background

          Blastocystis sp. is an anaerobic protozoan that parasitizes many animal hosts and the human gastrointestinal tract, and its pathogenicity is controversial. Captive wildlife may be potential reservoirs for human infection with Blastocystis sp. The present study was performed to investigate the prevalence and subtype distribution of Blastocystis sp. in zoo animals in Sichuan Province, southwestern China.

          Methods

          A total of 420 fresh fecal samples were collected from 54 captive wildlife species in four zoos in southwestern China between June 2017 and September 2019. The prevalence and subtype (ST) genetic characteristics of Blastocystis sp. were determined by PCR amplification of the barcode region of the SSU rRNA gene and phylogenetic analysis.

          Results

          Overall, 15.7% (66/420) of the animal samples and 20.7% (14/54) of the species tested were shown to be infected with Blastocystis sp. The highest prevalence of Blastocystis sp. was found in Panzhihua Zoo (24.3%), which was significantly higher than that in Chengdu Zoo (6.9%), and Xichang Zoo (2.9%) ( P < 0.05). There are also significant differences in the prevalence of Blastocystis sp. among different species ( P < 0.05), and the highest of Blastocystis sp. prevalence was observed in white-cheeked gibbon, black great squirrel, and red giant flying squirrel (100%). Subtype analysis of Blastocystis sp. revealed nine subtypes, including six zoonotic STs (ST1-5, and ST8) and three animal-specific STs (ST10, ST14, and ST17), with ST17 as the predominant subtype (26/66) in Blastocystis sp.-positive isolates.

          Conclusions

          To our knowledge, this is the first report on the prevalence and subtype distribution of Blastocystis sp. among captive wildlife in zoos in southwestern China. This study highlights that these animals may serve as reservoirs for human Blastocystis sp. infections.

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          Most cited references56

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          MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across Computing Platforms.

          The Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (Mega) software implements many analytical methods and tools for phylogenomics and phylomedicine. Here, we report a transformation of Mega to enable cross-platform use on Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Mega X does not require virtualization or emulation software and provides a uniform user experience across platforms. Mega X has additionally been upgraded to use multiple computing cores for many molecular evolutionary analyses. Mega X is available in two interfaces (graphical and command line) and can be downloaded from www.megasoftware.net free of charge.
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            New insights on classification, identification, and clinical relevance of Blastocystis spp.

            Blastocystis is an unusual enteric protozoan parasite of humans and many animals. It has a worldwide distribution and is often the most commonly isolated organism in parasitological surveys. The parasite has been described since the early 1900s, but only in the last decade or so have there been significant advances in our understanding of Blastocystis biology. However, the pleomorphic nature of the parasite and the lack of standardization in techniques have led to confusion and, in some cases, misinterpretation of data. This has hindered laboratory diagnosis and efforts to understand its mode of reproduction, life cycle, prevalence, and pathogenesis. Accumulating epidemiological, in vivo, and in vitro data strongly suggest that Blastocystis is a pathogen. Many genotypes exist in nature, and recent observations indicate that humans are, in reality, hosts to numerous zoonotic genotypes. Such genetic diversity has led to a suggestion that previously conflicting observations on the pathogenesis of Blastocystis are due to pathogenic and nonpathogenic genotypes. Recent epidemiological, animal infection, and in vitro host-Blastocystis interaction studies suggest that this may indeed be the case. This review focuses on such recent advances and also provides updates on laboratory and clinical aspects of Blastocystis spp.
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              DNA barcoding of blastocystis.

              We have developed a simple method for subtyping the intestinal protistan parasite Blastocystis using an approach equivalent to DNA barcoding in animals. Amplification of a 600 bp region of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene followed by single primer sequencing of the PCR product provides enough data to assign isolates to specific subtypes unambiguously. We believe that this approach will prove useful in future epidemiological studies.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                cdl931023@163.com
                jingxin__yao@163.com
                chenshanyu097510@163.com
                248109505@qq.com
                chaiyijun01@163.com
                83954903@qq.com
                593839590@qq.com
                410140017@163.com
                zhongzhijun488@126.com
                fuhl2005@sohu.com
                pgn.sicau@163.com
                Journal
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasites & Vectors
                BioMed Central (London )
                1756-3305
                6 January 2021
                6 January 2021
                2021
                : 14
                : 11
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.80510.3c, ISNI 0000 0001 0185 3134, The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, , Sichuan Agricultural University, ; Chengdu, 611130 Sichuan People’s Republic of China
                [2 ]Sichuan Wolong National Natural Reserve Administration, Aba, 623006 Sichuan People’s Republic of China
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9898-5754
                Article
                4515
                10.1186/s13071-020-04515-2
                7788908
                33407818
                c820a733-5b29-4c5d-83a7-b4629325c4c1
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 13 October 2020
                : 1 December 2020
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010821, Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Foundation;
                Award ID: CPF2017-12
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Special Fund for Forestry Reform and Development of Wolong Special Administrative Region of Sichuan Province
                Award ID: 510000-02-064387
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Parasitology
                blastocystis sp.,captive wildlife,subtypes,phylogenetic analysis,china
                Parasitology
                blastocystis sp., captive wildlife, subtypes, phylogenetic analysis, china

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