Identification of zoonotic Giardia genotypes in fish.

Apart from a single record in a shark, there have been no published studies conducted on Giardia genotypes in fish. The present study investigated the prevalence of Giardia in cultured fingerlings (n=227), wild freshwater (n=227) and wild marine/estuarine species (n=255) of fish in Western Australia by PCR amplification at the 18S rRNA, glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) and beta-giardin (bg) loci. Results revealed a low prevalence of Giardia, 3.8% (27/709), in fish hosts. The zoonotic Giardia species, Giardia duodenalis assemblages A, B as well as G. duodenalis assemblage E and Giardia microti were detected. The identification of zoonotic species of Giardia highlights the public health importance of investigating parasites within fish host species. (c) 2009 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.