Human Cryptosporidiosis Diagnosed in Western Australia: a Mixed Infection with Cryptosporidium meleagridis, the Cryptosporidium Mink Genotype, and an Unknown Cryptosporidium Species

Abstract

This report describes a case of cryptosporidiosis from an immunocompetent patient from Perth, Western Australia, suffering from diarrhea and a spectrum of other symptoms. Molecular identification revealed that this patient was infected with three Cryptosporidium species— Cryptosporidium meleagridis , the Cryptosporidium mink genotype, and an unknown Cryptosporidium species.

Differences in the occurrence and epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Western Australia (2002 − 2012)

“…It has been responsible for waterborne outbreaks in the U.S. (Feng et al, 2014). The IbA10G2 subtype is recognised as a major cause of sporadic cryptosporidiosis in WA, VIC, South Australia (SA), and NSW (Jex et al, 2007;Waldron et al, 2009;Ng et al, 2010;Waldron et al, 2011a), is highly virulent and has been associated with numerous waterborne cryptosporidiosis outbreaks in Australia (Ng et al, 2010;Mayne et al, 2011;Waldron et al, 2011b;Ng-Hublin et al, 2013) Limitations of the present study include the use of passive surveillance data, which is subjected to under-reporting especially of asymptomatic cases (Lal et al, 2015b). Molecular data was also not available for every case analysed and specimens genotyped were sent from various pathology laboratories from different regions in WA, depending on whether adequate amount for analysis was available, which did not allow for standardisation of sample sizes for cross regional comparisons.…”

Zoonotic Cryptosporidium Species in Animals Inhabiting Sydney Water Catchments

“…cuniculus , a novel Cryptosporidium species most closely related to C . wrairi and the Cryptosporidium mink genotype have been reported [24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42]. The aim of the present study was to use molecular tools to identify the Cryptosporidium sp.…”

Cryptosporidium in humans and animals—a one health approach to prophylaxis

“…Subtyping at the gp60 locus has suggested that sheep and wild rodents are a key source of C. ubiquitum transmission to humans, through either direct human contact with infected animals or by contamination of drinking source water . It is thought that human encroachment into wildlife territories has been responsible for the emergence of C. ubiquitum and other genotypes such as chipmonk genotype I and to a lesser extent, skunk and mink genotypes in human populations . This highlights the importance of extensive molecular epidemiological studies of wildlife to better understand the public health risks.…”

“…133 It is thought that human encroachment into wildlife territories has been responsible for the emergence of C. ubiquitum and other genotypes such as chipmonk genotype I and to a lesser extent, skunk and mink genotypes in human populations. 113,[133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142] This highlights the importance of extensive molecular epidemiological studies of wildlife to better understand the public health risks.…”