This report addresses Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Cyclospora, and more briefly, Toxoplasma as the main parasitic protozoa of concern to food production worldwide. Other parasitic protozoa may be spread in food or water but are not considered as great a risk to food manufacture. The protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Cyclospora have proven potential to cause waterborne and foodborne...

Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora are obligate, intracellular, coccidian protozoan parasites that infest the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals causing severe diarrhea illness. In this paper, we present an overview of the conventional and more novel techniques that are currently available to detect Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora in water. Conventional techniques and new immunological and...

BACKGROUND Cyclosporiasis is an emerging gastro-enteric disease caused by the coccidia protozoan Cyclospora cayetanensis. It is associated with diarrhoea among children in developing countries, in the Americas where C. cayetanensis is endemic, traveller's diarrhoea and/or food and waterborne outbreaks in the developed countries. OBJECTIVES The aim of this review is to highlight cyclosporiasis...

Cryptosporidium strikes over 400,000 people in Milwaukee! Cyclospora causes diarrhea in more than 1,000 residents of the USA and Canada! Such dramatic outbreaks have enhanced our awareness of the potential for food-and waterborne microbes to affect large numbers of people in the USA. According to the latest World Health Report, "Almost half the world's population suffers from diseases associate...

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a human-specific coccidian parasite responsible for several food and water-related outbreaks around the world, including the most recent ones involving over 900 persons in 2013 and 2014 outbreaks in the USA. Multicopy organellar DNA such as mitochondrion genomes have been particularly informative for detection and genetic traceback analysis in other parasites. We sequ...

During the summer of 1999, an outbreak of cyclosporiasis occurred among attendees of 2 events held on 24 July in different counties in Missouri. We conducted retrospective cohort studies of the 2 clusters of cases, which comprised 62 case patients. The chicken pasta salad served at one event (relative risk [RR], 4.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.80-10.01) and the tomato basil salad served a...

THIS CASE OF PROTRACTED diarrhoea in an Australian traveller initially appeared consistent with coeliac disease. Further analysis revealed infection with Cyclospora cayetanensis, which was successfully treated with antibiotics. The increasing number of documented outbreaks of Cyclospora infection,1 and the need for special preparation of stool samples for their detection,2 highlight the importa...

1. Herwaldt BL. Cyclospora cayetanensis: a review, focusing on the outbreaks if cyclosporiasis in the 1990s. Clin Infect Dis. 2000;31:1040–57. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1086/314051 2. Herwaldt BL. The ongoing saga of U.S. outbreaks of cyclosporiasis associated with imported fresh produce: what Cyclospora cayetanensis has taught us and what we have yet to learn. In: Institute of Medicine, editors. A...

To the Editor: More than a decade has passed since major outbreaks of Cyclospora cayetanensis infection in the United States and Canada drew attention to this newly emerging infection (1,2). Awareness of these infections was highlighted again by large outbreaks in the summer of 2013 (3). However, many questions remain unanswered regarding this organism, including aspects of its life cycle, geog...