Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 13;9(11):946.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens9110946.

Genetic Diversity of Cryptosporidium in Bactrian Camels (Camelus bactrianus) in Xinjiang, Northwestern China

Yangwenna Cao  1   2 , Zhaohui Cui  3   4 , Qiang Zhou  1   2 , Bo Jing  1   2 , Chunyan Xu  1   2 , Tian Wang  1   2 , Meng Qi  1   2 , Longxian Zhang  4
Affiliations

Genetic Diversity of Cryptosporidium in Bactrian Camels (Camelus bactrianus) in Xinjiang, Northwestern China

Yangwenna Cao et al. Pathogens. .

Abstract

Cryptosporidium species are ubiquitous enteric protozoan pathogens of vertebrates distributed worldwide. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the zoonotic potential and genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium spp. in Bactrian camels in Xinjiang, northwestern China. A total of 476 fecal samples were collected from 16 collection sites in Xinjiang and screened for Cryptosporidium by PCR. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium was 7.6% (36/476). Six Cryptosporidium species, C. andersoni (n = 24), C. parvum (n = 6), C. occultus (n = 2), C. ubiquitum (n = 2), C. hominis (n = 1), and C. bovis (n = 1), were identified based on sequence analysis of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. Sequence analysis of the gp60 gene identified six C. parvum isolates as subtypes, such as If-like-A15G2 (n = 5) and IIdA15G1 (n = 1), two C. ubiquitum isolates, such as subtype XIIa (n = 2), and one C. hominis isolate, such as Ixias IkA19G1 (n = 1). This is the first report of C. parvum, C. hominis, C. ubiquitum, and C. occultus in Bactrian camels in China. These results indicated that the Bactrian camel may be an important reservoir for zoonotic Cryptosporidium spp. and these infections may be a public health threat in this region.

Keywords: Bactrian camels; Cryptosporidium; genotype; public health; zoonotic potential.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bactrian camels fecal sampling locations in Xinjiang, northwestern China. No copyright permission was required. The figure was designed with the software ArcGIS 10.2. The map has been originally modified and assembled according to permission and attribution guidelines of the National Geomatics Center of China (http://www.ngcc.cn).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phylogenetic relationships between Cryptosporidium spp. partial gp60 sequences obtained in this study and sequences retrieved from the GenBank database. Phylogenetic trees were constructed using neighbor-joining methods based on genetic distance, calculated using the Kimura two-parameter model implemented in MEGA 7.0. Bootstrap values >50% from 1000 replicates are indicated at each node. Isolates from this study are shown in bold.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Xiao L., Feng Y. Molecular epidemiologic tools for waterborne pathogens Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis. Food Waterborne Parasitol. 2017;8–9:14–32. doi: 10.1016/j.fawpar.2017.09.002. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Efstratiou A., Ongerth J.E., Karanis P. Waterborne transmission of protozoan parasites: Review of worldwide outbreaks—An update 2011–2016. Water Res. 2017;114:14–22. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.01.036. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang R.J., Li J.Q., Chen Y.C., Zhang L.X., Xiao L.H. Widespread occurrence of Cryptosporidium infections in patients with HIV/AIDS: Epidemiology, clinical feature, diagnosis, and therapy. Acta Trop. 2018;187:257–263. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2018.08.018. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Khan A., Shaik J.S., Grigg M.E. Genomics and molecular epidemiology of Cryptosporidium species. Acta Trop. 2018;184:1–14. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.10.023. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Liang N., Wu Y., Sun M., Chang Y., Lin X., Yu L., Hu S., Zhang X., Zheng S., Cui Z., et al. Molecular epidemiology of Cryptosporidium spp. in dairy cattle in Guangdong Province, South China. Parasitology. 2019;146:28–32. doi: 10.1017/S0031182018001129. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources