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Occurrence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Chinese Tan sheep in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China

  • Protozoology - Short Communication
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Abstract

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a zoonotic parasite which is considered to be an opportunistic pathogen of humans and animals. A number of studies have reported E. bieneusi infection in various animals. However, no information is available on the occurrence of E. bieneusi in Tan sheep, a unique indigenous sheep species in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. The objectives of the present study were to examine the prevalence and identify the genotypes of E. bieneusi in Tan sheep in China. A total of 1014 fecal specimens of Tan sheep from six farms in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region were examined by nested PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The total prevalence of E. bieneusi was 12.2% (124/1014), ranging from 0.5 to 22.2% on six farms. Sequence analysis identified 10 genotypes of E. bieneusi, including three known genotypes, BEB6, COS-I, and CHG13, and seven novel genotypes designated as NX1 to NX7, which all belonged to group 2 by phylogenetic analysis. This is the first report describing the prevalence of E. bieneusi in Tan sheep, and the new genotypes identified in the current study expand the genotype distribution of E. bieneusi. These findings provide baseline data and have implications for the epidemiology and control of E. bieneusi infection in Tan sheep.

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Fig. 1

Data availability

The datasets supporting the conclusions in this article are included within the article. All the sequences of ITS genes obtained were deposited in GenBank with the following accession numbers: MK322754–MK322763.

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Funding

Project support was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31672549), the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Fujian Province Livestock Epidemic Prevention, Control and Biological Technology (2018KF02), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP) (Grant no. CAAS-ASTIP-2016-LVRI-03), and the Elite Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730046, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jun-Jie Peng, Yang Zou, Qin-Li Liang, Hai-Yang Song, Tao-Shan Li, Yuan-Yuan Ma & Xing-Quan Zhu

  2. Key Laboratory of Fujian-Taiwan Animal Pathogen Biology, College of Animal Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jun-Jie Peng & Dong-Hui Zhou

  3. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Yinchuan, 750002, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Xin Li

  4. Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for the Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou University College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xing-Quan Zhu

Authors
  1. Jun-Jie Peng
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  2. Yang Zou
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  3. Zhi-Xin Li
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  6. Tao-Shan Li
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  7. Yuan-Yuan Ma
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  9. Dong-Hui Zhou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dong-Hui Zhou.

Ethics declarations

The present study was approved by the Animal Administration and Ethics Committee of Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. All fecal samples were collected from the Chinese Tan sheep with the permission of farm owners or managers, and all procedures were performed strictly in accordance with the requirements of the Animal Ethics Procedures and Guidelines of the People’s Republic of China.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Section Editor: Yaoyu Feng

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Peng, JJ., Zou, Y., Li, ZX. et al. Occurrence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Chinese Tan sheep in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Parasitol Res 118, 2729–2734 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-019-06398-4

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