Full Description

Cryptosporidium contamination of drinking water systems continues to be a public health issuefor the drinking water industry. The current US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) methods for detecting Cryptosporidium inwater (USEPA Method 1623) provides information on the presence or absence of oocysts, butgives no information on the isolate or whether the oocysts are infectious. A recent study usingcell culture combined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detected infectious oocysts in 1.4%of 1,690 treated drinking water samples collected from 82 surface water treatment plants. Asa follow-up to this earlier study, 3 assays combining cell culture with various infection detectionmethods were evaluated in 2 laboratories to assess sensitivity, reliability, and accuracy(frequency of false positives and false negatives). The infectivity detection methods wereimmunofluorescence microscopy (IFA), PCR, and reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR)combined with post-detection genotyping. The most reliable assay will be used to test 1000Ltreated drinking water samples from participating utilities for the presence of infectiousCryptosporidium oocysts. Includes 24 references, tables, figure.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2007 Number of Pages: 11 File Size: 1 file , 230 KB