A total of 1.734 stool specimens from diarrhoea patients aged from 2 to 15 year old were examined by wet-mount and acid fast staining techniques for detection of Cryptosporidium. The parasites were found in 49 specimens, the proportion of positive cases was 2.82%, which was significant difference from those seen in the control group (n=400) with its proportion of 0.75% (p < 0.05). The majority of cases were found in children aged from 6 to 13 years old. The peaks of infection were seen in January, June - July.
Cryptosporidium ; diarrhea

1431 patients with diarrhea and 400 healthy children under 5 years in MÔ Tr× commune, Tõ Liªm district, Hµ Néi participated to a study. The patients were tested by using method of direct microscopy and the fast acid dye for finding cryptosporidium. The results have shown that the diarrhea due to cryptosporidium circulates in population with the highest rate of isolation in ages of 6-15 and most frequent during dry season such as January, November and December.
Diarrhea ; Cryptosporidium

No abstract available.
Cryptosporidium ; Cyclospora

Cryptosporidium causes diarrhea, commonly occurs in children under 5 years old. The disease condition ranges from severe to asymptomatic infection. This study involved 1,287 children under 5 years old without diarrhea and did not use antibiotics within 2 weeks previous. 412 stool samples were microscopied directly and enriched. No sample was found that containing Cryptosporidium parvum under directive microscopy. The enriched method found 3 samples containing Cryptosporidium parvum. Asymptomatic infection rate is 0.7%. This rate was compared with the incidence of Cryptosporidium parvum in other countries.
Bacterial Infections ; Cryptosporidium parvum

Eight 2-day-old SPF chickens were each inoculated orally with a single dose of 5+O105 oocysts of Cryptosporidium baileyi, and immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses were chronologically measured by indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) assay. Anti-C. baileyi IgG antibody levels remained high(1:106.67 to 1:512.00) for at least 4 months with 330 days of a detectable period. Ten days after the negative conversion, each chicken was re-challenged with 1+O107 oocysts of the same species. Subsequent infection in 340-day-old individuals caused sudden elevated IgG antibody levels and the titer peaked on day 28 postchallenge inoculation(PCI), at 1:1,024 with a 65 days of detection period. Chickens in primary infection showed oocyst shedding profiles, but did not exhibit any oocyst shedding before or after experimental reinfection.
parasitology-protozoa ; Cryptosporidium baileyi ; chicken ; IgG ; immunology

We investigate the resistance of Cryptosporidium (C.) parvum oocysts to commercial bleach treatment. The viability and infectivity of C. parvum oocysts suspended in 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.3 or 3.2% aqueous commercial bleach for 10, 30, 60, 120 or 180 min at room temperature were assessed by nucleic acid Syto-9 staining, histologic examination of ileum and infectivity to immunosuppressed neonatal C57BL/6N mice. Although the viability was decreased compared with normal oocysts, all oocysts in contact with serially diluted commercial bleach for 180 min were alive by nucleic acid dye Syto-9 staining. And, microscopic examination of ileum sections revealed developmental stages of C. parvum in all mice. The oocyst shedding patterns between mice infected with oocysts contacted with commercial bleach and normal control mice were not significantly different each other. Although commercial bleach is widely used as a bacterial and viral disinfectant, the present findings indicate that it is not an effective disinfectant for C. parvum oocysts under practical conditions. Authors conclude that, therefore, it is undesirable to recommend commercial bleach as a disinfectant for C. parvum oocysts.
Animals ; Cryptosporidium ; Cryptosporidium parvum ; Ileum ; Mice ; Oocysts ; Organic Chemicals ; Sodium Hypochlorite

Actin and some actin binding proteins such as tropomyosin, -actinin and troponin T were localized by simultaneous double immunogold labeling in several developmental stages of Cryptosporidium parvum. All of the observed developmental stages have many particles of tropomyosin and actin around pellicle and cytoplasm. Tropomyosin was labeled much more than the actin when these two proteins were labeled simultaneously. And alpha-actinin was labeled mostly in the pellicle, but troponin T labeling was very rarely observed. From this study, it was suggested that tropomyosin seems to be one of the major proteins of C. parvum, so it must be playing important roles in C. parvum.
parasitology-protozoa ; actin ; tropomyosin ; alpha-actinin ; troponin T ; Cryptosporidium parvum

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the movement of genetic material between kingdoms and is considered to play a positive role in adaptation. Cryptosporidium parvum is a parasitic protozoan that causes an infectious disease. Its genome sequencing reported 14 bacteria-like proteins in the nuclear genome. Among them, cgd2_1810, which has been annotated as CysQ, a sulfite synthesis pathway protein, is listed as one of the candidates of genes horizontally transferred from bacterial origin. In this report, we examined this issue using phylogenetic analysis. Our BLAST search showed that C. parvum CysQ protein had the highest similarity with that of proteobacteria. Analysis with NCBI's Conserved Domain Tree showed phylogenetic incongruence, in that C. parvum CysQ protein was located within a branch of proteobacteria in the cd01638 domain, a bacterial member of the inositol monophosphatase family. According to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, the sulfate assimilation pathway, where CysQ plays an important role, is well conserved in most eukaryotes as well as prokaryotes. However, the Apicomplexa, including C. parvum, largely lack orthologous genes of the pathway, suggesting its loss in those protozoan lineages. Therefore, we conclude that C. parvum regained cysQ from proteobacteria by HGT, although its functional role is elusive.
Apicomplexa ; Bacteria ; Communicable Diseases ; Cryptosporidium ; Cryptosporidium parvum ; Eukaryota ; Gene Transfer, Horizontal ; Genome ; Humans ; Inositol ; Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases ; Proteins ; Proteobacteria

Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia duodenalis are the main diarrhea-causing parasitic pathogens; however, their prevalence in Korea is unknown. Here, we conducted a survey to determine the prevalence and genotype distribution of these 2 pathogens causing acute diarrhea in 8,571 patients hospitalized in 17 Regional Institute of Health Environment sites in Korea, during 2013–2016. C. parvum and G. duodenalis were detected and genotyped by nested PCR, and the isolate were molecularly characterized by sequencing the glycoprotein 60 (Gp60) and β-giardin genes, respectively. The overall prevalence of C. parvum and G. duodenalis was 0.37% (n=32) and 0.55% (n=47), respectively, and both pathogens were more prevalent in children under 9 years old. Molecular epidemiological analysis showed that the C. parvum isolates belonged to the IIa family and were subtyped as IIaA13G2R1, IIaA14G2R1, IIaA15G2R1, and IIaA18G3R1. Analysis of the β-giardin gene fragment from G. duodenalis showed that all positive strains belong to assemblage A. This is the first report on the molecular epidemiology and subtyping of C. parvum and G. duodenalis in such a large number of diarrheal patients in Korea. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring of these zoonotic pathogens and provide a basis for implementing control and prevention strategies. Further, the results might be useful for epidemiological investigation of the source of outbreak.
Child ; Cryptosporidium parvum ; Cryptosporidium ; Diarrhea ; Genotype ; Giardia lamblia ; Giardia ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Korea ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence

Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora are well-known coccidian protozoa that can cause waterborne and foodborne diarrheal illnesses. There have been a few reports regarding contamination in different vegetables with Cryptosporidium, but no data are available regarding the sources of Cyclospora infections in Korea. In the present study, we collected 6 kinds of vegetables (perilla leaves, winter-grown cabbages, chives, sprouts, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes) from July 2014 to June 2015, and investigated contamination by these 2 protozoa using multiplex quantitative real-time PCR. Among 404 vegetables, Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora were detected in 31 (7.7%) and 5 (1.2%) samples, respectively. In addition, Cryptosporidium was isolated from all 6 kinds of vegetables, whereas Cyclospora was detected in 4 kinds of vegetables (except perilla leaves and chives). Cryptosporidium (17.8%) and Cyclospora (2.9%) had the highest detection rates in chives and winter-grown cabbages, respectively. Cryptosporidium was detected all year long; however, Cyclospora was detected only from October to January. In 2 samples (sprout and blueberry), both Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora were detected. Further investigations using TaqI restriction enzyme fragmentation and nested PCR confirmed Cryptosporidium parvum and Cyclospora cayetanensis, respectively. In conclusion, we detected C. cayetanensis in vegetables for the first time in Korea. This suggests that screening should be employed to prevent these protozoal infections in Korea.
Blueberry Plant ; Brassica ; Chive ; Cryptosporidium parvum ; Cryptosporidium* ; Cyclospora* ; Korea* ; Mass Screening ; Perilla ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Vegetables*