Blastocystis

Deng, Lei, Yao, Jing-Xin, Liu, Hai-Feng, Zhou, Zi-Yao, Chai, Yi-Jun, Wang, Wu-You, Zhong, Zhi-Jun, Deng, Jun-Liang, Ren, Zhi-Hua, Fu, Hua-Lin, Yan, Xia, Yue, Chan-Juan & Peng, Guang-Neng, 2019, First report of Blastocystis in giant pandas, red pandas, and various bird species in Sichuan province, southwestern China, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 9, pp. 298-304 : 301

3.1. Prevalence of Blastocystis

PCR amplification of the barcode region of the SSU rRNA gene revealed that a total of 19 (11.3%) of the 168 samples had confirmed Blastocystis infections. The highest prevalence was observed in ruddy shelduck (18.2%, 2/11), followed by giant pandas (12.3%, 10/81). The prevalence of Blastocystis in black swans, red pandas, and green peafowl were 10.5%, 8.7%, and 6.7%, respectively ( Table 1). There were no significant associations between prevalence and the different species (χ2 = 1.107, df = 4, P> 0.05). The prevalence of Blastocystis in giant pandas of different ages and genders is presented in Table 2; with the highest prevalence being observed in ages> 5 years (14.8%, 8/54), followed by 8.7% (2/23) for ages 1.5–5.5 years, and 0% in ages <1.5 years, however, the difference was not significant (χ2 = 1.654, df = 2, P> 0.05). Similarly, the difference was not significant between male (16.4%, 10/61) and female (16.9%, 14/83) giant pandas (χ2 = 0.014, df = 1, P> 0.05).