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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 2507-2513, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.2507-2513.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Emergence of Distinct Genotypes of Cryptosporidium parvum in Structured Host Populations

Sultan Tanriverdi,¹ Alex Markovics,² M. Özkan Arslan,³ Aysel Itik,⁴ Varda Shkap,² and Giovanni Widmer^1*

Division of Infectious Diseases, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, Massachusetts 01536,¹ Kimron Veterinary Institute, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel,² Veterinary Faculty, Department of Parasitology, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey,³ Kafkas University, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Parasitology, Kars, Turkey⁴

Received 13 September 2005/ Accepted 23 January 2006

Cryptosporidium parvum is an apicomplexan parasite that infects humans and ruminants. C. parvum isolated from cattle in northeastern Turkey and in Israel was genotyped using multiple polymorphic genetic markers, and the two populations were compared to assess the effect of cattle husbandry on the parasite's population structure. Dairy herds in Israel are permanently confined with essentially no opportunity for direct herd-to-herd transmission, whereas in Turkey there are more opportunities for transmission as animals range over wider areas and are frequently traded. A total of 76 C. parvum isolates from 16 locations in Israel and seven farms in the Kars region in northeastern Turkey were genotyped using 16 mini- and microsatellite markers. Significantly, in both countries distinct multilocus genotypes confined to individual farms were detected. The number of genotypes per farm was higher and mixed isolates were more frequent in Turkey than in Israel. As expected from the presence of distinct multilocus genotypes in individual herds, linkage disequilibrium among loci was detected in Israel. Together, these observations show that genetically distinct populations of C. parvum can emerge within a group of hosts in a relatively short time. This may explain the frequent detection of host-specific genotypes with unknown taxonomic status in surface water and the existence of geographically restricted C. hominis genotypes in humans.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Infectious Diseases, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536. Phone: (508) 839-7944. Fax: (508) 839-7911. E-mail: giovanni.widmer{at}tufts.edu.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 2507-2513, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.2507-2513.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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