The presence of Vibrio cholerae in the environment is key to understanding the epidemiology of cholera. The gold standard for laboratory confirmation of V. cholerae from water is a culture method, but this requires laboratory infrastructure. A rapid diagnostic test that is simple, inexpensive, and can be deployed widely would be useful for confirming V. cholerae in samples of environmental wate...

The environmental DNA (eDNA) method is a detection technique that is rapidly gaining credibility as a sensitive tool useful in the surveillance and monitoring of invasive and threatened species. Because eDNA analysis often deals with small quantities of short and degraded DNA fragments, methods that maximize eDNA recovery are required to increase detectability. In this study, we performed exper...

The assessment of species distribution is a first critical phase of biodiversity studies and is necessary to many disciplines such as biogeography, conservation biology and ecology. However, several species are difficult to detect, especially during particular time periods or developmental stages, potentially biasing study outcomes. Here we present a novel approach, based on the limited persist...

BACKGROUND Birth cohort studies provide the opportunity to advance understanding of the impact of environmental factors on childhood health and development through prospective collection of environmental samples. METHODS We evaluated the feasibility and informative value of the environmental sample collection methodology in the initial pilot phase of the National Children's Study, a planned U...

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are 2 protozoan parasites responsible for waterborne diseases outbreaks worldwide. In order to assess the prevalence of these protozoans in drinking water samples in the northern part of Portugal and the risk of human infection, we have established a long term program aiming at pinpointing the sources of surface water, drinking water, and environmental contamination,...

In December 2012, an outbreak of acute gastrointestinal illness occurred in a geographical distinct area in Denmark covering 368 households. A combined microbiological, epidemiological and environmental investigation was initiated to understand the outbreak magnitude, pathogen(s) and vehicle in order to control the outbreak. Norovirus GII.4 New Orleans 2009 variant was detected in 15 of 17 indi...

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are commonly found in the environment. As exposure to environmental mycobacteria has been reported to immunomodulatory in this study, the presence of environmental mycobacteria was investigated in soil, drinking water and drainage sample in Ghatampur, India, which is known for high endemicity for leprosy. Soil, drinking water from the hand pumps/wells and also...