Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © Inter-Research, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of Inter-Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 81 (2008): 39-51, doi:10.3354/dao01931.
Description:
Giardia intestinalis is a microbial eukaryotic parasite that causes diarrheal disease in humans and other vertebrates worldwide. The negative effect on quality of life and economics caused by G. intestinalis may be increased by its potential status as a zoonosis, or a disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans. The zoonotic potential of G. intestinalis has been implied for over 2 decades, with human-infecting genotypes (belonging to the 2 major subgroups, Assemblages A and B) occurring in wildlife and domesticated animals. There are recent reports of G. intestinalis in shellfish, seals, sea lions and whales, suggesting that marine animals are also potential reservoirs of human disease. However, the prevalence, genetic diversity and effect of G. intestinalis in marine environments and the role that marine animals play in transmission of this parasite to humans are relatively unexplored. Here, we provide the first thorough molecular characterization of G. intestinalis in marine vertebrates. Using a multi-locus sequencing approach, we identify human-infecting G. intestinalis haplotypes of both Assemblages A and B in the fecal material of dolphins, porpoises, seals, herring gulls Larus argentatus, common eiders Somateria mollissima and a thresher shark Alopias vulpinus. Our results indicate that G. intestinalis is prevalent in marine ecosystems, and a wide range of marine hosts capable of harboring zoonotic forms of this parasite exist. The presence of G. intestinalis in marine ecosystems raises concerns about how this disease might be transmitted among different host species.
Description:
This paper is a result of
research funded under the following awards: NOAA Coastal
Ocean Program award no. NA05NOS4781247, the NOAA
Prescott Program award no. NA06NMF4390130, the COHH
award no. NIEHS P50ES012742, and the National Science
Foundation OCE award no. 0430724 given to Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts and
the National Institutes of Health award no. AI0580C4 ‘Molecular
Evolution of Eukaryotes,’ given to the Marine Biological
Laboratory, Woods Hole.
Keywords:
Giardia intestinalis
;
Zoonosis
;
Marine birds
;
Marine mammals
;
Thresher shark
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
