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. 2025 Jun 2;70(3):121.
doi: 10.1007/s11686-025-01061-8.

First Data on the Occurrence and Genotyping of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Wrestling Camels in Türkiye

Neslihan Sursal Simsek  1 , Irmak Cakmak  2 , Emrah Simsek  3
Affiliations

First Data on the Occurrence and Genotyping of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Wrestling Camels in Türkiye

Neslihan Sursal Simsek et al. Acta Parasitol. .

Abstract

Purpose: Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the most prevalent microsporidian parasite and has wide host diversity, including animals and humans. However, there are a limited number of studies on the presence, molecular epidemiology, and genotyping of E. bieneusi in camels worldwide. Currently, no data are available on the occurrence, distribution, and genotypes of E. bieneusi in wrestling camels in Türkiye. This study aimed to address the knowledge gap regarding E. bieneusi in wrestling camels in Türkiye.

Methods: In this study, a total of 110 fecal samples from camels in various provinces of Türkiye were investigated to reveal the presence of E. bieneusi, and the subsequent zoonotic potential of isolates was assessed at the genotype level by PCR-sequence analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene region.

Results: Three fecal specimens were detected as E. bieneusi positive, and the overall prevalence was 2.72%. Further sequence analyses revealed a novel genotype hereby named camelEb from wrestling camels in the Aydin (n = 1) and Mugla (n = 2) provinces of Türkiye. In the phylogenetic analyses, the camelEb genotype clustered into group 6 with other genotypes reported from camels.

Conclusion: This is the first report on the presence of E. bieneusi in wrestling camels, suggesting that camels could also serve as a potential reservoir or carrier for E. bieneusi in Türkiye.

Keywords: Enterocytozoon bieneusi; Camels; Genotyping; ITS; Türkiye.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sampling areas, number of fecal samples and E. bieneusi genotype characterized in camels in Türkiye
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The evolutionary relationships of Enterocytozoon bieneusi genotypes inferred from ITS nucleotide sequences. Neighbor-Joining analysis based on Kimura two-parameter model was used the phylogenetic analyses of the ITS data set. Bootstrap values greater than 50.0% from 1000 pseudoreplicates were displayed. A novel E. bieneusi genotype identified in this study was indicated with triangle. The sequences are provided along with their GenBank accession numbers, the country of origin, host, and corresponding genotype names. Groups 12 to 15 are suggested by Jiang et al. [15] as potentially valid phylogenetic groups
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