Molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium and Giardia from the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)

The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a carnivorous marsupial found only in the wild in Tasmania, Australia. Tasmanian devils are classified as endangered and are currently threatened by devil facial tumour disease, a lethal transmissible cancer that has decimated the wild population in Tasm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-04, Vol.12 (4), p.e0174994-e0174994
Main Authors: Wait, Liana F, Fox, Samantha, Peck, Sarah, Power, Michelle L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural development
Agricultural management
Agronomy
Animals
Animals, Wild
Animals, Zoo
Antibodies
Bayesian analysis
Biodiversity
Bioinformatics
Biology and Life Sciences
Birds
Computation
Conservation
Cryptosporidiosis - epidemiology
Cryptosporidiosis - parasitology
Cryptosporidiosis - transmission
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium - classification
Cryptosporidium - genetics
Cryptosporidium - isolation & purification
Dehydrogenase
Differentiation
Discrimination
Disease reservoirs
Dogs
Domestic animals
Ecosystems
Ectoparasites
Enclosures
Endangered & extinct species
Endangered Species
Environmental protection
Estimates
Food contamination
Fragmentation
Genetic structure
Genome, Protozoan
Genotype
Genotypes
Giardia
Giardia lamblia - classification
Giardia lamblia - genetics
Giardia lamblia - isolation & purification
Giardiasis - epidemiology
Giardiasis - parasitology
Giardiasis - transmission
Giardiasis - veterinary
Glutamic acid
Host-Parasite Interactions
Humans
Indicators
Infections
Ingestion
Islands
Marsupialia - parasitology
Marsupials
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mice
Microscopy
Parasites
Parasitic diseases
Parks
Pathogenicity
Pathogens
Phylogeny
Polymerase chain reaction
Population studies
Prevalence
Protozoa
Public health
Research and Analysis Methods
Sarcophilus harrisii
Sea lions
Seasons
Species extinction
Statistical analysis
Statistics
Tasmania - epidemiology
Taxonomy
Tumors
Zoonoses
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Summary:The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a carnivorous marsupial found only in the wild in Tasmania, Australia. Tasmanian devils are classified as endangered and are currently threatened by devil facial tumour disease, a lethal transmissible cancer that has decimated the wild population in Tasmania. To prevent extinction of Tasmanian devils, conservation management was implemented in 2003 under the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. This study aimed to assess if conservation management was altering the interactions between Tasmanian devils and their parasites. Molecular tools were used to investigate the prevalence and diversity of two protozoan parasites, Cryptosporidium and Giardia, in Tasmanian devils. A comparison of parasite prevalence between wild and captive Tasmanian devils showed that both Cryptosporidium and Giardia were significantly more prevalent in wild devils (p < 0.05); Cryptosporidium was identified in 37.9% of wild devils but only 10.7% of captive devils, while Giardia was identified in 24.1% of wild devils but only 0.82% of captive devils. Molecular analysis identified the presence of novel genotypes of both Cryptosporidium and Giardia. The novel Cryptosporidium genotype was 98.1% similar at the 18S rDNA to Cryptosporidium varanii (syn. C. saurophilum) with additional samples identified as C. fayeri, C. muris, and C. galli. Two novel Giardia genotypes, TD genotype 1 and TD genotype 2, were similar to G. duodenalis from dogs (94.4%) and a Giardia assemblage A isolate from humans (86.9%). Giardia duodenalis BIV, a zoonotic genotype of Giardia, was also identified in a single captive Tasmanian devil. These findings suggest that conservation management may be altering host-parasite interactions in the Tasmanian devil, and the presence of G. duodenalis BIV in a captive devil points to possible human-devil parasite transmission.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0174994