Prevalence of Trichomonas spp. in domestic pigeons in Shandong Province, China, and genotyping by restriction fragment length polymorphism

• The prevalence of trichomonads in pigeons in Shandong Province of China was determined.
• Trichomonas gallinae genotypes A and B, and Trichomonas tenax-like trichomonads were detected.
• Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses with BsiEI and HaeIII were performed.
• RFLP distinguished the T. tenax-like strain from T. gallinae.

Oropharyngeal swabs (n = 609) were collected randomly from 80,000 domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) on five pigeon farms and at one pigeon slaughterhouse in Shandong Province, China, from September 2012 to July 2013. Trichomonas spp. were detected in 206/609 (33.8%) samples. The prevalence was 14.9–31.1%, depending on different levels of sanitation and management, and was 4.8% in nestling pigeons, 13.6% in breeding pigeons and 35.2% in adolescent pigeons. Trichomonas gallinae genotypes A and B, and Trichomonas tenax-like isolates were identified by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the 5.8S rDNA-internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. RFLP analysis with the restriction enzyme BsiEI generated different RFLP band patterns between T. gallinae and T. tenax-like isolates. When BsiEI RFLP analysis was combined with HaeIII RFLP analysis, all infection types of T. gallinae and T. tenax-like isolates could be identified.