Cryptosporidium and Giardia species are two of the most prevalent protozoa that cause waterborne diarrheal disease outbreaks worldwide. To better characterize the prevalence of these pathogens, EPA Method 1623 was developed and used to monitor levels of these organisms in US drinking water supplies (12). The method has three main parts; the first is the sample concentration in which at least 10...

Feces from 62 beavers (Castor canadensis) in Massachusetts were examined by fluorescence microscopy (IFA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Microsporidia species, Cryptosporidium spp., and Giardia spp. between January 2002 and December 2004. PCR-positive specimens were further examined by gene sequencing. Protist parasites were detected in 6.4% of the beavers. All were subadults and kits....

Giardia lamblia is the most common intestinal parasite in the United States and is worldwide in distribution. l Approximately 4 percent of stool specimens submitted to public health laboratories in this country contain Giardia cysts.2 The usual symptoms of acute giardiasis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, and weight loss. Many, if not most, individuals with Giardia infection are asym...

The infectious and diagnostic stage of Giardia lamblia (also known as G. intestinalis or G. duodenalis) is the cyst. The Giardia cyst wall contains fibrils of a unique beta-1,3-linked N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) homopolymer and at least three cyst wall proteins (CWPs) composed of Leu-rich repeats (CWP(LRR)) and a C-terminal conserved Cys-rich region (CWP(CRR)). Our goals were to dissect the ...

Giardia lamblia, a parasite of humans, is a major source of waterborne diarrhoeal disease. Giardia is also an excellent system to study basic biochemical processes because it is a single-celled eukaryote with a small genome and its entire life cycle can be replicated in vitro. Giardia trophozoites undergo fundamental changes to survive outside the intestine of their host by differentiating into...

Fecal droppings of migratory Canada geese, Branta canadensis, collected from nine sites near the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland), were examined for the presence of Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia spp. Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts were found in feces at seven of nine sites, and Giardia cysts were found at all nine sites. The oocysts from three sites were infectious for mice and molecularly identifie...

A total of 181 faecal samples were collected from wild cervids in two regions of Poland. Giardia cysts were detected in one faecal specimen from red deer and in two samples from roe deer. Fragments of the beta-giardin (bg) triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) genes were successfully amplified from the Giardia isolate obtained from red deer, whereas only amplicons o...

Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are protozoan parasites that have been highlighted as emerging foodborne pathogens by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. According to the European Food Safety Authority, 4786 foodborne and waterborne outbreaks were reported in Europe in 2016, of which 0.4% were attributed t...

Giardia and Cryptosporidium have caused several outbreaks of gastroenteritis in humans associated with drinking water. Contaminated sewage effluents are recognized as a potential source of waterborne protozoa. Due to the lack of studies about the occurrence of these parasites in sewage samples in Brazil, we compared the efficiency of two procedures for concentrating cysts and oocysts in activat...

Major waterborne cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis outbreaks associated with contaminated drinking water have been linked to evidence of suboptimal treatment. Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts are particularly more resistant than Giardia lamblia cysts to removal and inactivation by conventional water treatment (coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorine disinfection); therefore, extensive ...