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Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Cryptosporidium spp. in cattle in Jiangxi Province, southeastern China

  • Genetics, Evolution, and Phylogeny - Original Paper
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Abstract

Cryptosporidium is a genus of single-celled protozoa, infecting a wide range of animals and humans. Although Cryptosporidium infections of cattle have been reported in some provinces in China, there is no available information on the prevalence and predominant species of Cryptosporidium in cattle in Jiangxi province. To investigate the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in cattle in Jiangxi province of China, 556 fecal samples were collected from eight farms in four cities and the SSU rRNA locus of Cryptosporidium was amplified from the DNA of each fecal sample by PCR. The overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium was 12.8% (71/556) in cattle in Jiangxi province, with 24.3% (54/222) in Nanchang city, 7.8% (13/166) in Gao’an city, 3.7% (4/108) in Xinyu city, and 0.0% (0/60) in Ji’an city. The differences of the prevalence rates by region, breed, and age groups were statistically significant. All positive PCR products of Cryptosporidium were successfully sequenced and identified as three Cryptosporidium species, namely Cryptosporidium bovis (1/556, 0.18%), Cryptosporidium ryanae (7/556, 1.3%), and Cryptosporidium andersoni (63/556, 11.3%). Furthermore, 36 C. andersoni isolates were successfully classified into three MLST (multilocus sequence typing) subtypes based on four genetic loci (MS1, MS2, MS3, and MS16). The predominant MLST subtype was A4, A4, A4, A1 (n = 30). These findings not only revealed the prevalence and predominant species of Cryptosporidium in cattle in Jiangxi province, but also provided a baseline for studying the genetic structure of C. andersoni, offering a novel resource for better understanding of the epidemiology of Cryptosporidium infection in cattle in Jiangxi province, southeastern China.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Associate Professor Hany M. Elsheikha, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, UK for improving the English of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP) (Grant No. CAAS-ASTIP-2016-LVRI-03) and the Yunnan Expert Workstation (Grant No. 202005AF150041).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Animal Health, College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Sen Li, Pei Wang, Ming-Ren Qu, Ping Wang & Xiao-Qing Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730046, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Sen Li, Yang Zou & Xing-Quan Zhu

  3. College of Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, 030801, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Wen-Bin Zheng & Xing-Quan Zhu

  4. Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of Yunnan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, People’s Republic of China

    Xing-Quan Zhu

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  1. Sen Li
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  2. Yang Zou
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  3. Pei Wang
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Correspondence to Xing-Quan Zhu.

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Li, S., Zou, Y., Wang, P. et al. Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Cryptosporidium spp. in cattle in Jiangxi Province, southeastern China. Parasitol Res 120, 1281–1289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07047-5

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