Comparisons of mammalian Giardia duodenalis assemblages based on the β-giardin, glutamate dehydrogenase and triose phosphate isomerase genes.

The objective of this study was to determine and compare the assemblages of Giardia duodenalis isolated from mammalian fecal samples using the β-giardin (bg), glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) and triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) genes. A total of 202 samples, either submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (Parasitology) at Colorado State University or part of ongoing research studies, were typed. A subset of 50 dog samples were also assessed by the tpi-D-specific primers. Of these, 183 were from dogs, 13 were from cats, two were from llamas, and one each was from a calf, an alpaca, a sheep, and a horse. The majority of the dogs (171 of 183 isolates) in this study were infected with only dog-adapted Assemblage C or D. The tpi-D-specific primers confirmed that 28 of the samples that typed as Assemblage D by the bg and gdh genes were also Assemblage D by the tpi-D-specific primers. Only 12 isolates were Assemblage A alone or Assemblage A and Assemblage C or D. Of the 13 cat isolates, seven were Assemblage F, two were Assemblage D, three were Assemblage A and 1 contained both Assemblages C and D. The calf isolate was Assemblage E (gdh, tpi) and the alpaca (bg, gdh), llamas (gdh), sheep (bg, gdh, tpi) and horse (tpi) isolates were all Assemblage A. When the assemblage could be determined for more than one gene, 91 of 117 dog isolates gave consistent results and 8 of 9 cat isolates gave consistent results.