Characterization of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. species in waters collected for urban supply in the Municipality of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

• Grant number: 14/17997-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2014
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Protozoology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Regina Maura Bueno Franco
• Grantee: Bárbara Cristina Trainotti Amaro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 12/50522-0 - Environmental contamination by protozoa Giardia spp. and Cryptosporidium spp. and Ascaris suum: challenges of detection, removal and inactivation of infective forms, AP.TEM

Abstract

The presence of pathogenic waterborne protozoa, Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp., has been documented in Atibaia and Capivari rivers that supply the city of Campinas, SP. These rivers exhibit high degree of eutrophication. This research aims to investigate the occurrence of different species of Cryptosporidium and Giardia genotypes in samples of raw surface water from the Atibaia and Capivari rivers. The various water samples will be concentrated by membrane filtration method or Filta-Max ® system according to the turbidity values registered, and will be purified by immunomagnetic separation (IMS). Fractions resulting from the IMS will be subjected to molecular studies by nested-PCR for beta-giardina genes (Giardia spp.) and 18S rRNA (Cryptosporidium spp.), with the objective of sequencing. All samples of this project will be analyzed together with reference sequences obtained from GenBank (NCBI) for both, G. duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. For a more accurate analysis, the sequenced fragments will be also compared with the NCBI nucleotide database through the global alignment (BLAST). The results allow to identify the main sources of contamination of these rivers.