{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T11:44:49Z","timestamp":1785757489016,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785715200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Giardia duodenalis, a member of the genus Giardia, is a common intestinal protozoan parasite in humans and some farm, companion, and wild animals. Due to the uniform morphology of the parasites sampled from a wide range of hosts, the taxonomy of the genus Giardia has been the subject of debate for more than a century. The confusion generated by this controversy, and the technological limitations to carry out the necessary research to clarify the matter, led to an insufficient understanding of the epidemiology of the infection, mainly in aspects related to host specificity and zoonotic transmission. The results of molecular and epidemiological studies conducted over the last four decades, which are reviewed in this paper, allow us to conclude that zoonotic transmission of Giardia duodenalis infection is possible. Concurrently, these findings suggest that most Giardia infections are host-specific, rendering zoonotic transmission relatively uncommon. Nevertheless, from a public health perspective, such transmission remains a critical concern for vulnerable groups, particularly children and immunocompromised individuals. In these populations, even infrequent zoonotic events can lead to severe clinical outcomes, including chronic diarrhea, malabsorption, and failure to thrive.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16152382","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T10:24:07Z","timestamp":1785752647000},"page":"2382","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Regarding the Zoonotic Transmission of Giardia duodenalis Infection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4980-4435","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luis","family":"Fonte","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n, Diagn\u00f3stico y Referencia, Instituto de Medicina Tropical \u201cPedro Kour\u00ed\u201d, La Habana 11400, Cuba"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mar\u00eda","family":"Ginori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Docencia, Policl\u00ednico Universitario \u201cPlaza de La Revoluci\u00f3n\u201d, La Habana 10609, Cuba"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yamil\u00e9","family":"Aleaga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Microbiolog\u00eda Cl\u00ednica, Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kour\u00ed, La Habana 11400, Cuba"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3166-5086","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Enrique J.","family":"Calder\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Roc\u00edo\/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas\/Universidad de Sevilla, 41013 Sevilla, Spain"},{"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Biom\u00e9dica en Red de Epidemiolog\u00eda y Salud P\u00fablica (CIBERESP), 28029 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6255-5525","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yaxsier","family":"de Armas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Microbiolog\u00eda y Patolog\u00eda, Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara 44100, Mexico"},{"name":"Departamento de Anatom\u00eda Patol\u00f3gica, Instituto de Medicina Tropical \u201cPedro Kour\u00ed\u201d, La Habana 11400, Cuba"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e00024-19","DOI":"10.1128\/CMR.00024-19","article-title":"Giardia duodenalis: Biology and pathogenesis","volume":"34","author":"Adam","year":"2021","journal-title":"Clin. 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