Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in Tan sheep (Ovis aries) in northwestern China

Giardia duodenalis is a common intestinal protozoa, which can cause the occurrence of diarrhea, weight loss, and even death in animals or human, this threatens the husbandry industry and public health. It can infect virtually humans and all domestic animals including sheep. Tan sheep is one of the most important sheep breeds, which is short-tailed indigenous sheep breed used for production of high quality meat and pelts in China. However, there are no report regarding the occurrence and multilocus genotyping of G. duodenalis in Tan sheep in northwestern China. Thus, the objective of the present study was to investigate the prevalence and multilocus genotypes of G. duodenalis in Tan sheep. 1014 fecal samples were collected from Tan sheep from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and three loci (β-giardin (bg), glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) and triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) genes) were amplified by nested PCR. The prevalence of G. duodenalis in Tan sheep was 14.5% (147/1014), two assemblages (assemblage A, n = 43; and E, n = 90) were detected, including one novel assemblage A at bg locus, one novel assemblage A at tpi locus, and 10 and 11 novel subtypes of assemblage E were detected at the bg and gdh loci, respectively. One MLGs was formed based on sequence variation among the three loci. Moreover, 9 Tan sheep were infected with two assemblages (A and E) based on the three loci. These findings expand the host range of G. duodenalis and revealed genetic diversity of G. duodenalis assemblages in Tan sheep.