First Report on Genotyping of Giardia duodenalis in Farmed Rabbits in Algeria

Relatively, the epidemiology of giardiasis in rabbits has been poorly documented worldwide. In Algeria, few molecular studies reporting G. duodenalis genotyping/subtyping have been conducted only in livestock and in humans. The present study aims to perform genotyping and subtyping of G. duodenalis in farmed rabbits using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis. Forty-four faecal samples were collected from 23 rabbit farms in Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou provinces, located in central Algeria. Firstly, the detection of Giardia cysts in the faeces of rabbits was performed using the ELISA method (RIDASCREEN^® Giardia test). Subsequently, positive ELISA samples were subjected to PCR amplification and sequencing of three genetic loci, including the triose phosphate isomerase (tpi), beta-giardin (bg), and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) genes. ELISA test detected 13 (29.5%) positive samples among 44 screened samples. Of which, molecular analysis showed the presence of nine positive samples at least by one gene. Eight positive samples were determined as G. duodenalis assemblage B based on phylogenetic analyses of sequences from the three loci. One sample was clustered with assemblage E reference sequences for the gdh gene, while tpi and bg results showed assemblage B. The present study reports valuable data on the epidemiology of giardiasis in rabbits in Algeria, particularly the occurrence of zoonotic G. duodenalis assemblage B.