Identification of Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Cryptosporidium spp. in farmed wild boars (Sus scrofa) in Beijing, China

Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Cryptosporidium spp. are opportunistic pathogen that can infected humans and other animals. However, the data on the prevalence and genotypes of the parasites in captive wild boars is not available in Beijing, China. In this study, a total of 257 fecal specimens of wild boars were collected. The overall prevalence of E. bieneusi and Cryptosporidium spp. was 42.0% (108/257) and 5.8%, respectively. Higher infection rate of E. bieneusi was discovered in the wild boar ≤2 months old (58.3%). The differences between the feeding pattern and gender were not significant. Furthermore, eight genotypes of E. bieneusi were determined by analyzing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the rRNA gene, including seven known genotypes and one novel genotype. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all the eight genotypes belonged to the zoonotic potential Group 1. For Cryptosporidium spp., no significant differences were found between groups of gender, age and feeding pattern. Only C. scrofarum was identified in the investigated samples. The findings suggest that wild boar could be reservoirs of E. bieneusi and C. scrofarum which could be potentially transmitted to humans and other animals.