College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, No.263 Kaiyuan Road, Luolong District, Luoyang, 471003, People's Republic of China.
Parasitol Res. 2022 Sep;121(9):2739-2745. doi: 10.1007/s00436-022-07603-7. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
Cryptosporidium spp. are common protozoan parasites that can infect humans and animals worldwide. Recently, the hairless guinea pigs (also called Skinny pigs) were introduced into China as pets. However, Cryptosporidium species and their prevalence in these exotic animals were not studied. In this study, fecal samples were collected from a total of 324 hairless guinea pigs from a pet market and four breeding facilities in four provinces of China. The infection rate of Cryptosporidium was 6.8% (22/324). Three Cryptosporidium species were identified, including Cryptosporidium homai (n = 16), Cryptosporidium wrairi (n = 5), and Cryptosporidium hominis plus C. homai (n = 1). Sequence analysis of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene showed that the C. hominis isolate was a C. hominis variant, which mostly infects equine animals. However, the identification of C. hominis was not supported by the analysis of other genetic loci. The C. hominis isolate was characterized as C. homai at both 70-kDa heat shock protein (hsp70) and actin genes, indicating a mixed infection. At the 60-kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene, subtyping of the C. hominis isolate was not successful. Five C. wrairi isolates were identified as subtype VIIaA13T1, which was previously reported in a guinea pig in the USA. The Cryptosporidium spp. identified in this study have no or low zoonotic potential.
隐孢子虫是一种常见的原生动物寄生虫，可感染全球的人类和动物。最近，无毛豚鼠（也称为“斯金纳猪”）作为宠物被引入中国。然而，这些外来动物中的隐孢子虫种类及其流行情况尚未得到研究。在这项研究中，从中国四个省份的一个宠物市场和四个繁殖设施共采集了 324 份无毛豚鼠的粪便样本。隐孢子虫的感染率为 6.8%（22/324）。鉴定出三种隐孢子虫，包括微小隐孢子虫（n=16）、脆弱隐孢子虫（n=5）和人源隐孢子虫和微小隐孢子虫混合感染（n=1）。小亚单位（SSU）rRNA 基因序列分析显示，人源隐孢子虫分离株是人源隐孢子虫变异株，主要感染马科动物。然而，其他遗传基因座的分析不支持人源隐孢子虫的鉴定。人源隐孢子虫分离株在 70-kDa 热休克蛋白（hsp70）和肌动蛋白基因上被鉴定为微小隐孢子虫，表明存在混合感染。在 60-kDa 糖蛋白（gp60）基因上，人源隐孢子虫分离株的亚分型不成功。鉴定出的 5 株脆弱隐孢子虫分离株均为亚型 VIIaA13T1，此前在美国的豚鼠中也有报道过。本研究中鉴定出的隐孢子虫种类无或低人畜共患潜力。
