Global prevalence of microsporidia infection in cats: A systematic review and meta-analysis of an emerging zoonotic pathogen.

Microsporidiosis in pet and stray cats is an emerging zoonotic threat with public health significance worldwide. However, the epidemiological patterns of feline microsporidiosis is still neglected around the world. Hence, current systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at characterizing the prevalence estimates and genotypes of microsporidian parasites among cats of the world. Several databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar) were systematically explored to find relevant studies. Evaluation of the weighted prevalences among included studies was done using random-effects model. Totally, 30 studies (34 datasets) reported from 19 countries were included in the present work. Microsporidia infection demonstrated higher prevalence rates using microscopy 29.7 % (19.7-42.2 %), followed by serology and molecular techniques with 11 % (4.6-24.2 %) and 8.2 % (5.9-11.4 %), respectively. Moreover, molecular data showed Enterocytozoon bieneusi as the most dominant reported species with 7.4 % (5.1-10.5 %). Also, investigations (11 studies) mostly isolated D genotype among all E. bieneusi genotypes. These results highlight cats as a potential reservoir for acquisition of microsporidia infection in humans, and surveillance programs should be implemented in high-risk areas.