The prevalence of cryptosporidiosis in Turkish children, and genotyping of isolates by nested polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.
OBJECTIVE
To verify the incidence of cryptosporidiosis among Turkish elementary school students.


METHODS
This study was conducted in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Turkey during a 3-month period in 2006. We assessed the fecal samples of 707 children using modified acid-fast and phenol-auramine staining followed by modified Ritchie concentration method. All Cryptosporidium species isolates were analyzed by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to differentiate the genotypes of the isolates. After the coprological examination, 4 samples were found to be positive for Cryptosporidium species oocysts.


RESULTS
In the present study, all 4 oocysts were of zoonotic origin and belonged to Cryptosporidium parvum genotype 2 indicating that in Turkey the potential sources of human cryptosporidiosis is from animals.


CONCLUSIONS
The application of genotyping to clinical isolates of Cryptosporidium has significantly increased our knowledge and understanding of the distribution and epidemiology of this parasite. The PCR and RFLP techniques represent a more rapid and simple method of genotyping to support epidemiological and clinical investigations than conventional analytical DNA techniques.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli University, Umuttepe Kampusu, Kocaeli, Turkey. guldensonmez@hotmail.com
Gulden S
GS
Tamer
Meral
M
Turk
Hande
H
Dagci
Bayram
B
Pektas
Edward C
EC
Guy
Adnan Y
AY
Guruz
Ahmet
A
Uner
D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D003457:Cryptosporidiosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D003458:Cryptosporidium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015995:Prevalence; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology