Departamento de Clínicas Veterinárias, ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Grupo de Virología Clínica y Zoonosis, Unidad de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba, Hospital Reina Sofía, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
Med Mycol. 2024 Mar 7;62(3). doi: 10.1093/mmy/myae019.
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a microsporidia commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and a wide range of other animals, constituting a major cause of microsporidiosis in humans. Although E. bieneusi has been detected in humans, domestic, and wild animals in Portugal, and its presence in bats has been linked to zoonotic characteristics, its occurrence in bats within the country has not been reported. In this study, we investigated the presence of E. bieneusi in 380 bat fecal samples collected in mainland Portugal through a nested PCR assay targeting the internal transcribed spacer region and the flanking small and large subunits of the ribosomal RNA. Enterocytozoon bieneusi was detected in one bat sample (i.e., 0.26%; Pipistrellus pipistrellus). Additionally, another sample tested positive for Enterocytozoon sp. Phylogenetic analysis of the obtained ITS sequence of E. bieneusi revealed clustering within the potentially zoonotic Group 1. This study represents the first report of E. bieneusi in a bat from Europe. Findings presented here contribute to an enhanced understanding of E. bieneusi epidemiology.
肠微孢子虫（Enterocytozoon bieneusi）是一种常见于人类和其他多种动物胃肠道的微孢子虫，是人类微孢子虫病的主要病因之一。虽然在葡萄牙的人类、家养和野生动物中已经检测到 E. bieneusi，并且蝙蝠携带该病原体与人畜共患特征有关，但在该国蝙蝠中尚未报告其存在。在这项研究中，我们通过针对内部转录间隔区以及核糖体 RNA 的侧翼小亚基和大亚基的巢式 PCR 检测法，调查了 380 份来自葡萄牙本土蝙蝠粪便样本中 E. bieneusi 的存在情况。在一只蝙蝠样本中（即 0.26%；皮氏菊头蝠）检测到肠微孢子虫。此外，另一个样本检测出 Enterocytozoon sp. 的阳性结果。对获得的 E. bieneusi ITS 序列进行的系统发育分析显示，其聚类属于潜在的人畜共患的第 1 组。本研究首次报道了欧洲蝙蝠携带肠微孢子虫。本研究结果有助于更好地了解肠微孢子虫的流行病学。
