Giardiasis is a globally re-emerging protozoan disease with veterinary and public health implications. The current study was carried out to investigate the zoonotic potential of livestock-specific assemblage E in rural settings. For this purpose, a total of 40 microscopically positive Giardia stool samples from children with gastrointestinal complaints with or without diarrhea were enrolled in the study as well as fecal samples from 46 diarrheic cattle (18 dairy cows and 28 calves). Animal samples were examined by sedimentation method to identify Giardia spp., and then, all Giardia positive samples from human and animals were processed for molecular detection of livestock-specific assemblage E through amplification of assemblage-specific triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) gene using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results of the study revealed high unexpected occurrence of assemblage E among human samples (62.5 %), whereas the distribution among patients with diarrhea and those without was 42.1 and 81 %, respectively. On the other hand, the prevalence of Giardia spp. among diarrheic dairy cattle was (8.7 %), while only calves yielded positive results (14.3 %) and all bovine Giardia spp. were genetically classified as Giardia intestinalis assemblage E. Moreover, DNA sequencing of randomly selected one positive human sample and another bovine one revealed 100 and 99 % identity with assemblage E tpi gene sequences available at GenBank after BLAST analysis. In conclusion, the current study highlights the wide dissemination of livestock-specific assemblage E among humans in rural areas, and thus, zoonotic transmission cycle should not be discounted during the control of giardiasis in such settings.
Keywords: Giardia intestinalis assemblage E; Rural settings; Zoonosis.