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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6748-6752, Vol. 70, No. 11
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6748-6752.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of CaliforniaDavis, Tulare,1 University of California Cooperative Extension, Bakersfield, California2
Received 27 February 2004/ Accepted 16 July 2004
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Enumeration of Cryptosporidium.
Concentration of oocysts from sieved fecal suspensions and direct immunofluorescence microscopy were used to detect and enumerate Cryptosporidium oocysts, as previously described (4). Final oocyst counts were adjusted for percent recovery, determined previously to be
10% for oocyst concentrations of <1,000 g of feces1 and
16.5% for oocyst concentrations of
1,000 g of feces1 (4).
DNA extraction.
For selected isolates, oocysts were purified by using anti-Cryptosporidium Dynabeads (Dynal, Inc., Lake Success, N.Y.). DNA was extracted after five freeze (80°C) and thaw (+80°C) cycles followed by overnight incubation at 60°C in TES [N-tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid] buffer containing 0.8% Sarkosyl (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.). DNA was precipitated in 100% cold ethanol, dried, and stored at 4°C in Ultra Pure distilled water (DNase, RNase free; Life Technologies, Carlsbad, Calif.).
PCR and DNA sequencing.
PCR amplification of the 18S small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene locus was performed according to the methodology described by Xiao et al. (18, 19), except that 3 mM MgCl2 was used for both primary and secondary PCR. After PCR amplification, the positive nested PCR fragment was sequenced in both directions (forward and reverse sequences) by using an ABI 3730 Capillary Electrophoresis Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.). A positive control was obtained from an infected dairy calf from Pixley, Calif. A negative control was included by substituting sterile water for DNA.
Sequence analyses.
Multiple alignment of the DNA reverse and forward sequences was done with the Vector NTI Advance package from InforMax, Inc. (Frederick, Md.). The aligned sequence was compared to other sequences present in the GenBank database and to the sequence obtained from C. parvum isolated from a dairy calf in California.
Infectivity assay for neonatal BALB/c mice.
Cryptosporidium oocysts were purified from feces of heavily infected California ground squirrels by using a discontinuous sucrose gradient (1) and stored in deionized water at 4°C for no more than 14 days prior to use. Oocysts were observed with phase-contrast microscopy, and the concentration of intact oocysts was determined as the arithmetic mean of six separate counts with a hemacytometer, which was then adjusted to a concentration of 105 oocysts per ml of deionized water.
Individual litters of neonatal BALB/c mice and their dams were purchased from Harlan Company (San Diego, Calif.), housed in cages with air filters, and given food and water ad libitum. Litters of 4-day-old neonatal mice were given either 100, 5,000, or 10,000 oocysts in 100 µl of deionized water. Each pup was given oocysts from only one infected host, with no doses constructed by mixing oocysts isolated from separate infected California ground squirrels. Intragastric inoculations were done using a 24-gauge ball-point feeding needle. In addition, a litter of pups was used as a positive-control group which received an equivalent dose of freshly purified bovine C. parvum oocysts along with a litter of pups receiving only 100 µl of distilled water (negative control).
Cryptosporidium infections in neonatal mice were assessed by two methods: by staining homogenates of mouse intestinal tissue with a fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled anti-Cryptosporidium immunoglobulin M antibody (Waterborne Inc., New Orleans, La.) and by histology performed by a board-certified veterinary pathologist. The first method was a minor modification of the method of Hou et al. (10), which was based in part on methods developed by Freire-Santos et al. (7), Mtambo et al. (12), and Vergara-Castiblanco et al. (17). Briefly, mice were euthanized by CO2 asphyxiation 7 days after inoculation. The entire intestine was removed, suspended in 5 ml of deionized water, and homogenized with a KIKA-Werke instrument (IKA-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Staufen, Germany). The tissue homogenates were washed in deionized water and centrifuged at 1,500 x g for 10 min, and the supernatant was removed. Pellets were resuspended in 10 ml of deionized water and filtered through a 20-µm-pore-size nylon net filter (Millipore Co., Bedford, Mass.) fixed on a Swinnex holder (Millipore). The filtrates were concentrated to 1 ml by centrifugation at 1,500 x g for 10 min. Fifty microliters of the final suspension was mixed with 50 µl of anti-Cryptosporidium monoclonal antibodies (Meridian, Cincinnati, Ohio) and 2 µl of 0.5% Evans blue in phosphate-buffered saline and incubated at room temperature for 45 min in a dark box. Three duplicate wet mount slides were prepared from each sample, by using 20 µl of reaction mixture per slide. Slides were examined at 400x with an epifluorescence microscope (BX 60; Olympus America Inc., Melville, N.Y.). For histopathology, 5-mm-thick portions of ileum, cecum, and colon were collected and immediately fixed in a 10% neutral-buffered formalin solution, processed by standard histopathology techniques, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 7 µm, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (10). Histologic sections of ileum, cecum, and proximal colon were examined for C. parvum oocysts attached to enterocytes under light microscopy at x100, x200, and x400. We have found previously that the method of using tissue homogenates coupled with direct immunofluorescence microscopy for determining the infection status of inoculated neonatal mice is twice as sensitive as histopathology (10).
Statistical analyses.
The prevalence of fecal shedding was compared between age, sex, and age-by-sex groupings, by using logistic regression, with trapping site set as a cluster variable (as explained in volume 2 of Stata Statistical Software: Release 7.0, Reference H-P, p. 221-247 [Stata Corporation, College Station, Tex.], 2001). The intensity of oocyst shedding (mean number of oocysts per gram of feces) was compared between these same age, sex, and age-by-sex groupings by using negative binomial regression, with trapping site set as a cluster variable (as explained in volume 2 of Stata Statistical Software: Release 7.0, Reference H-P, p. 383-392).
Nucleotide sequence accession number.
The nucleotide sequences of the SSU rRNA gene of Cryptosporidium isolated from S. beecheyi have been deposited in the GenBank database under accession numbers AY462231 to AY462233.
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2% body weight (4). Therefore, the environmental loading rate of Cryptosporidium oocysts from this host species, when averaged across the 12 months, was 57,882 oocysts squirrel1 day1 (555.6 g squirrel1 x 0.02 fecal mass day1 x 5,209 oocysts g of feces1), but these values vary dramatically depending on season (see Fig. 3). These values are similar to the overall mean intensities of 8,543 oocysts g of feces1 and 93,973 oocysts squirrel1 day1 that were observed previously for California ground squirrels tested during June through October (4). Compared to adult squirrels, juveniles had on average a twofold-higher prevalence of infection and a two- to fourfold-higher intensity of fecal shedding (Table 1). The low to moderate prevalences of infection (7 to 18%, data not shown) among dams during pregnancy and pupping likely function to infect a subset of newborn squirrels prior to emergence from natal burrows, resulting in the observed 22 to 34% prevalence of infection among juveniles in April and May (Fig. 1). As juvenile emergence is completed in May (6, 8, 9, 14), a rapid expansion of Cryptosporidium infection occurs among both juvenile and adult squirrels during the summer months (two-sided P < 0.05), evidenced by the sharp increase in both the prevalence and the intensity of fecal shedding of Cryptosporidium during June and July. Following this summer peak of Cryptosporidium infection, colonies of ground squirrels appeared to develop immunity to this parasite, resulting in sharp declines of fecal shedding of oocysts during August, with these low infection indices then lasting through the subsequent winter months (Fig. 1 and 2). |
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TABLE 1. Prevalence and intensity of shedding of C. parvum oocysts by California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi)d
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FIG. 3. Environmental loading of C. parvum by California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi), stratified by month and age class.
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FIG. 1. Prevalence of C. parvum infection in California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi), stratified by month and age class.
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FIG. 2. Intensity of fecal shedding of C. parvum oocysts in California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi), stratified by month and age class.
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200,000 oocysts squirrel1 day1. Loading rates declined substantially for the remainder of the year. Based on these average monthly values, approximately 71% of oocysts produced by the adult members of a ground squirrel colony during a 12-month period were produced during just May and June, with 47% produced in May alone (Fig. 3). Similarly, 87% of the cumulative annual oocyst production by juvenile members of the colony occurred in just June and July. A primary mechanism of transporting large numbers of Cryptosporidium oocysts from the terrestrial to the aquatic component of a watershed is when high rates of environmental loading of Cryptosporidium occur in conjunction with overland flow conditions (e.g., rates of precipitation exceeding infiltration) (5, 11, 16). Throughout much of the geographical range of S. beecheyi, overland flow conditions typically occur between November and March, months in which this host species has a reduced rate of Cryptosporidium loading relative to that for May through July (Fig. 3). Nevertheless, Cryptosporidium loading rates in, for example, January are on average 16,593 oocysts squirrel1 day1 (629 g squirrel1 x 0.02 fecal mass day1 x 1,319 oocysts g of feces1). Assuming that squirrel population densities are at the lower end of the reported range of 8.4 to 92 adults ha1 (6, 9, 14), for example, 20 squirrels ha1 for a 5,000-ha watershed, then daily Cryptosporidium loading from this host species alone would be 1.7 x 109 oocysts day1.
Based on DNA sequencing of a portion of the 18S SSU rRNA gene, we isolated up to three potentially different genotypes of Cryptosporidium in this population of squirrels (Sbey03a, Sbey03b, and Sbey03c), with 82% of the isolates (9 of 11) being Sbey03c (Fig. 4) from squirrels located in the Temblor range, the Tehachapi Mountains, and the southern Sierra Nevada (30- to 80-mile distances between trap locations). These different genotypes were isolated from different squirrels, with no squirrel found to be shedding more than one genotype. The DNA sequences did not perfectly match any existing Cryptosporidium DNA sequences that have been deposited in the GenBank database as of 20 May 2004. These unique DNA sequences were slightly more closely related (96 to 97% homology) to porcine C. parvum (AF115377) and C. wrairi (AF115378) than to bovine genotype A C. parvum (95 to 96% homology). Furthermore, Cryptosporidium genotype Sbey03c shared slightly more DNA sequence homology to porcine C. parvum (96%) and C. wrairi (96%) than to Cryptosporidium Sbey03a and Sbey03b (95%) from the same host species, but these relationships need to be substantiated with additional DNA sequence information from other Cryptosporidium genes before firm conclusions can be made. Interestingly, had one used the more popular PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) genotyping method, which also targets the 18S SSU rRNA gene (18, 19), a researcher may have misclassified Sbey03a, Sbey03b, or Sbey03c as a common porcine genotype, depending on the individual's skill at distinguishing a 454-bp band from a 446-bp band (Table 2). Interestingly, in a previous project on Cryptosporidium genotypes in California ground squirrels, a porcine PCR-RFLP pattern was identified using this nested PCR-RFLP method (4), which suggests that this popular method of genotyping can incorrectly lump together distinct isolates of Cryptosporidium into broader genotype categories, leading to false epidemiologic linkages.
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FIG. 4. Polymorphic region of the 18S SSU rRNA gene demonstrating three genotypes of Cryptosporidium (Sbey03a, Sbey03b, and Sbey03c) isolated from California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi), compared to C. parvum bovine genotype A (California dairy calf isolate Btd03a), C. parvum porcine genotype I (AF115377), and C. wrairi (AF115378). A period signifies that the base is identical to that of the bovine genotype A reference; a dash signifies a base deletion with respect to the bovine genotype A reference.
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TABLE 2. Predicted PCR-RFLP genotype patterns targeting the 18S SSU rRNA gene (18) for novel C. parvum isolates from California ground squirrels (S. beecheyi) compared to existing bovine and porcine genotypes
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