FLOW CYTOMETRIC AND MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF POSSIBLE PROTOZOAL CONTAMINATION OF DRINKING WATER IN TANTA, EGYPT

Protozoal water contamination is an alarming cause of countless waterborne outbreaks. The mosteminent causal protozoa are Cryptosporidium and Giardia species (spp.) as they can endure aquaticenvironment even with chlorine disinfectants. currently used traditional techniques cannot permitan easy detection the concerning their count, viability, pathogenicity. Thepresent work detected protozoal drinking in Egypt determinationof load, viability potential Four were compared including conventionalstaining techniques, immunofluorescence (IF) staining, flow cytometry (FC) molecularstudy. Also, was assessed by conventional trypan blue stain nucleic acid stain. Along ayear, 64 samples collected concentrated from tanks tap differentdistricts, significant differences (P < 0.001) between different each season regardingthe cysts oocysts. Number total positive sampleswas significantly higher tank than especially at summer. Flow cytometryand nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) proved to be much more sensitive IF assay, andconventional staining techniques. Regarding trypanblue 0.001). C. parvum predominate other genotypes.