title: Multilocus genotypes and broad host-range of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in captive wildlife at zoological gardens in China.
abstract: Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a common opportunistic pathogen that is widely detected in humans, domestic animals and wildlife, and poses a challenge to public health. The present study was performed to evaluate the prevalence, genotypic diversity and zoonotic potential of E. bieneusi among wildlife at Chengdu and Bifengxia zoological gardens in Sichuan Province, China.
  
  
  
  Of the 272 fresh fecal samples harvested from 70 captive wildlife species at Chengdu Zoo (n = 198) and Bifengxia Zoo (n = 74), 21 (10.6 %) and 22 (29.7 %) tested positive for E. bieneusi by internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing analysis, respectively. Specifically, genotypes D, Peru 6, CHB1, BEB6, CHS9, SC02 and SC03, and genotypes D, CHB1, SC01 and SC02 were detected in the Chengdu and Bifengxia Zoo samples, respectively. Five known genotypes (D, Peru 6, BEB6, CHS9 and CHB1) and three novel genotypes (SC01, SC02 and SC03) were clustered into the zoonotic group (group 1) and host-adapted group (group 2). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis targeting three microsatellites (MS1, MS3 and MS7) and one minisatellite (MS4) were successfully sequenced for 37, 33, 35 and 37 specimens, generating 8, 3, 11 and 15 distinct locus types, respectively. Altogether, we identified 27 multilocus genotypes (MLGs) among the E. bieneusi isolates by MLST. These data highlight the high genetic diversity of E. bieneusi among zoo wildlife.
  
  
  
  To our knowledge, this is the first report on the prevalence and genotypic diversity of E. bieneusi infections among captive wildlife in zoos in southwest China. Notably, we identified three novel E. bieneusi genotypes, as well as six new mammalian hosts (Asian golden cats, Tibetian blue bears, blackbucks, hog deer, Malayan sun bears and brown bears) for this organism. Moreover, the occurrence of zoonotic genotypes suggests that wildlife may act as reservoirs of E. bieneusi that can serve as a source of human microsporidiosis. The findings presented here should contribute to the control of zoonotic disease in China.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: The Chengdu Zoo, Institute of Wild Animals, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 625001, China.
authors.forename: Xingming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: The Chengdu Zoo, Institute of Wild Animals, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 625001, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Xuehan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: The Chengdu Zoo, Institute of Wild Animals, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 625001, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: The Chengdu Zoo, Institute of Wild Animals, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 625001, China.
authors.forename: Jiabo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Shuangshuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: The Chengdu Zoo, Institute of Wild Animals, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 625001, China.
authors.forename: Liqin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Ziyao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Yanchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Hualin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, 625014, China.
authors.forename: Huailiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 611130, China. pgn.sicau@163.com.
authors.forename: Guangneng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Peng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021862:Enterocytozoon / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D058507:Host Specificity; D016881:Microsporidiosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer
keywords: China; Enterocytozoon bieneusi; ITS; MLST; Wildlife; Zoological garden