Molecular epidemiology of giardia duodenalis isolates from sika deer and javan rusa in Sungai Lembing, Pahang / Nurul Azmiera Zamri

Giardia duodenalis is a binucleate intestinal parasite that has two forms of life cycle which are trophozoite and cyst. Cyst is the infective stage while trophozoite attaches itself to our intestinal villi. It can be divided into eight different genetic assemblages starting from A to H. Common assemblages infecting the human which is A and B, found in the animals, open a recent transmission mode called zoonotic. Giardiasis is a common disease associated with G. duodenalis and gives common clinical symptoms such as diarrhea, malabsorption and abdominal pain. Recently, prevalence studies for G. duodenalis in Malaysia are starting to focus on farm animals. However, there is a limited data on the characterization of G. duodenalis from deer farm in this country. Therefore, this research is conducted to determine the prevalence of G. duodenalis from Sika deer and Javan rusa deer in Sungai Lembing, Pahang. A cross-sectional study was conducted in D’Paradise deer farm, one of the largest deer farm in Malaysia, located in Sungai Lembing, Pahang. A total 50 stool samples were collected, 25 samples each from two species of deer involved in this research which are Sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Javan rusa (Cervus timorensis). The stool samples collected were analysed microscopically using Wheatley’s trichrome staining technique and nested polymerase chain reaction by the amplification of triosephosphate isomerase gene. Both methods showed prevalence of 0% (0/50) for G. duodenalis in both species. Therefore, more studies with a broad range of deer farms and various species of deer could be performed to further understand the characterization of G. duodenalis from deer in Malaysia.