Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 211, Issue -, Pages 95-100Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2015.07.002
Keywords
Cyclospora cayetanensis; qPCR; SSCP; Water; Soil; Vegetable; Human; Food safety
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Funding
- In.Te.R.R.A. [01-01480]
- Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MIUR), within the Italian PON/Ricerca e Competitivita Programme
- Australian Research Council (ARC)
- National Health 82 Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia
- Melbourne Water Corporation and Yourgene Bioscience
- Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI) [VR0007]
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To date, in Europe, there is scant information on the occurrence of Cyclospora in water from treatment plants and in humans, and no data are available on soil or fresh plant products. Here, we undertook the first molecular survey of Cyclospora in multiple biological matrices collected from the Apulia region of southern Italy. Samples of irrigation water from four municipal treatment plants, eight different types of vegetables or fruit (cucumber, lettuce, fennel, celery, tomato, melon, endive and chicory) and soil from the same farms on which these plants were grown, as well as faecal samples from humans living in the same region were tested by qPCR-coupled single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and DNA sequencing. Cyclospora was detected in 15.5% of all 213 samples tested. Specifically, this protist was detected in (i) treated water (21.3% of 94 samples), well water (6.2% of 16), but not drinking water (0% of 3); (ii) soil (11.8% of 51 samples) and vegetables (12.2% of 49), with the highest prevalence (18.7%) on fennel; and (iii) human stools (27.5% of 40 samples). In environmental and food samples, Cyclospora was detected mainly in autumn and was significantly more prevalent in the faeces from humans of 40-50 years of age. This is the first comprehensive molecular survey of Cyclospora in environmental, food and human faecal samples in Europe. These data suggest that irrigation water, soil and vegetables might be contaminated by Cyclospora cayetanensis, which might represent a source of infection to humans in the study area and calls for monitoring by health authorities. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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