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Occurrence and genotypic characteristics of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pigs with diarrhea

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Abstract

There is limited information available on the association between Enterocytozoon bieneusi and diseases in animals or on the characteristics of the strains involved. This study examined the occurrence of E. bieneusi in piglets with and without diarrhea to determine its involvement. Among 472 fecal samples from 472 piglets (237 with diarrhea and 235 without) up to 7 weeks of age, 67 (approximately 14%) were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive for E. bieneusi. Of the 237 piglets with diarrhea, 38 (approximately 16%) tested positive for E. bieneusi. Of the 235 healthy piglets, 29 (approximately 12%) tested positive for E. bieneusi. This species was detected only in the younger group of piglets with diarrhea, particularly those aged less than 1 week and between 1 and 2 weeks. This suggests that E. bieneusi is a possible cause of diarrhea in piglets. This organism, however, produced asymptomatic infections in the older piglets, as there was no significant difference in the rates of occurrence between the diarrheic and nondiarrheic older piglets (aged older than 4 weeks). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene of the ten E. bieneusi-positive samples was amplified using nested PCR and subsequently sequenced. Genetic polymorphisms, which were represented by five distinct genotypes (PEbA–PEbE), were found among the E. bieneusi isolates. The five genotypes identified in this study differed from each other by two to six single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Nine isolates from four genotypes (PEbA–PEbD) were homologous to previously known types that had originally been isolated from pigs. However, one isolate from the PEbE genotype was identical to type CAF1, which was originally isolated from humans. In addition, the phylogenetic relationships determined by the neighbor-joining analysis of the ITS sequences indicated this genotype to be more distant from the other pig-specific genotypes. Thus, this isolate from pigs may be distantly related to the pig-specific genotypes and may be capable of infecting humans.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grant no. RTI05-03-02 from the Regional Technology Innovation Program of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy (MOCIE) Republic of Korea, a grant from the Post-doctoral Program, Chonbuk National University (2004), and the international collaborative research funds of Chonbuk National University, 2007. The authors wish to thank Dr. Joon-Seok Chae for technical support in the analysis of phylogenetic relationships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 561-756, Republic of Korea

    Du-Kyung Jeong, Ga-Yeon Won, Jin Hur, Ju-Yeon You, Su-Jin Kang, In-Gyeong Oh & John Hwa Lee

  2. College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Bae-Keun Park

  3. Department of Medical Zoology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yun-Sik Lee

  4. Indiana Molecular Biology Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Barry D. Stein

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  1. Du-Kyung Jeong
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  2. Ga-Yeon Won
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  4. Jin Hur
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  10. John Hwa Lee
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Correspondence to John Hwa Lee.

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Jeong, DK., Won, GY., Park, BK. et al. Occurrence and genotypic characteristics of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pigs with diarrhea. Parasitol Res 102, 123–128 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-007-0740-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-007-0740-3

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