Prevalence and multilocus genotyping of Giardia from animals at the zoo of Poznan, Poland

In this study total of 266 fecal samples from 242 animals belonging to 113 species kept in the Poznan Zoological Garden were examined for Giardia. The cysts of Giardia were found only in five samples of feces collected from a giant toad (Bufo marinus), tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) and three individuals of cactus mouse (Peromyscus eremicus). Fragments of β-giardin (bg), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) genes were successfully amplified only from the Giardia isolate obtained from the tamandua. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that the Giardia isolate from the tamandua belonged to the B assemblage and showed homologies of 99% to 100% at bg, gdh and tpi loci of the same markers of parasites isolated from humans and animals in various parts of the world. This is the first molecular characterization of G. duodenalis from tamandua.