Current status of Blastocystis sp. in animals from Southeast Asia: a review
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PROTOZOOLOGY - REVIEW
Current status of Blastocystis sp. in animals from Southeast Asia: a review Adedolapo Aminat Rauff-Adedotun 1
&
Siti Nursheena Mohd Zain 2
&
Meor Termizi Farah Haziqah 1
Received: 6 February 2020 / Accepted: 21 July 2020 / Published online: 20 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Blastocystis is the most frequently observed eukaryotic gastrointestinal symbiont in humans and animals. Its low host specificity and zoonotic potential suggest that animals might serve as possible reservoirs for transmission. The prevalence and subtype distributions of Blastocystis sp. in animal populations in Southeast Asia, a hotspot for zoonotic diseases, are reviewed. Recommendations for future research aimed at understanding the zoonotic role of Blastocystis are also included. Seven countries have, so far, reported Blastocystis infection in various animals, such as livestock, poultry, companion animals, and non-human primates. Pigs were the most studied animals, and there were records of 100% prevalence in pigs, cattle, and ostriches. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approaches, twelve Blastocystis sp. subtypes (STs), namely ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8, ST9, ST10, ST12, and ST14 have been recognised infecting animals of Southeast Asia. ST1 and ST5 were the most frequently identified, and Malaysia observed the most diverse distribution of subtypes. Further investigations on Blastocystis sp. in various animal hosts, using adequate sample sizes and uniform detection methods, are essential for a better understanding of the distribution of this organism. Detailed genome studies, especially on STs shared by humans and animals, are also recommended. Keywords Blastocystis . Distribution . Prevalence . Subtypes . Animals . ASEAN
Introduction Blastocystis sp. is a ubiquitous intestinal protistan parasite found in a wide range of animals, including humans (Tan 2004; Chandrasekaran et al. 2014). It is an anaerobic protist (Skotarczak 2018), and a member of the Stramenopiles branch of Eukarya, a complex and heterogeneous evolutionary assemblage of heterotrophic and photosynthetic protozoa (Silberman et al. 1996). Blastocystis is a polymorphic organism with four forms commonly described in literature, namely the vacuolar, granular, amoeboid, and cyst forms (Tan et al. 2002). The transmission is faecal-oral, and it commonly inhabits its host’s large intestine (Tan 2008). Despite being the Section Editor: Kevin S.W. Tan * Meor Termizi Farah Haziqah [email protected] 1
School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
2
Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
most widely encountered eukaryotic gastrointestinal symbiont in humans and animals (Adao and Rivera 2018), and having been described since the early 1900s, there have only been a handful of significant advances in the understanding of Blastocystis biology over the last decade (Tan 2008). One
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