Enterocytozoon bieneusi

Deng, Lei, Yue, Chan-Juan, Chai, Yi-Jun, Wang, Wu-You, Su, Xiao-Yan, Zhou, Zi-Yao, Wang, Long-Qiong, Li, Ling-Yu, Liu, Hai-Feng, Zhong, Zhi-Jun, Cao, Sui-Zhong, Hu, Yan-Chun, Fu, Hua-Lin & Peng, Guang-Neng, 2019, New genotypes and molecular characterization of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in pet birds in Southwestern China, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 10, pp. 164-169 : 166-168

3.1. Prevalence of E. bieneusi in pet birds

In the present study, 97 out of 387 fecal specimens from pet birds (25.1%) were positive for E. bieneusi . All the tested pet markets were E. bieneusi -positive, and prevalence ranged from 10% to 29.1% with no difference among them (P> 0.05, df = 3). The highest prevalence of E. bieneusi was observed in munias (60%, 18/30), followed by quails (50%, 8/16), red-headed lovebirds (25.6%, 10/39), budgerigars (20.4%, 54/265), zebra finches (19.4%, 6/31), and mynas (16.7%, 1/6) ( Table 1). However, the differences among these species was significant (P <0.05, df = 5).

3.2. Genetic characterization and genotype distributions of E. bieneusi in pet birds

Analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the ITS region of E. bieneusi revealed that the 97 E. bieneusi -positive isolates obtained here belonged to eight genotypes, including five known genotypes (D, SC02, BEB6, CHB1, and MJ5) and three novel genotypes (SCB-I, SCB-II, and SCB-III). Genotype D was the predominant (42.3%, 41/97) and was present in all bird species except for mynas. followed by genotypes SC02 (29.9%, 29/ 97) in budgerigar, red-headed lovebird, and quail; BEB6 (14.4%, 14/ 97) was identified in budgerigar and munia. Additionally, genotype

ND: E. bieneusi genotype not determined.

CHB1 (4.1%, 4/97) was found in two bird species (budgerigars and mynas), whereas genotype MJ5 (3.1%, 3/97) was only found in munias.

Genetic polymorphism was observed among the novel genotypes. The novel genotypes SCB-I (MK301527) and SCB-III (MK301529) differed from genotype CHB1 (KU825466) and had eight and six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), respectively. In contrast, genotype SCB-II (MK301528) had only one SNP when compared with genotype SC02 (KY950533). The base variation of the genotypes within the 243 bp of the ITS sequence is presented in Fig. 1 .

Figures

Fig. 1. Sequence variation in the ITS region of the rRNA gene of Enterocytozoon bieneusi isolates from pet birds. The ITS sequences of five known genotypes (D, SC02, BEB6, CHB1, and MJ5) and the three novel genotypes (SCB-I, SCB-II, and SCB-III), identified in this study, were aligned with each other.