The first recorded outbreak of cryptosporidiosis due to Cryptosporidium cuniculus (formerly rabbit genotype), following a water quality incident

Puleston, Richard, Mallaghan, Cathy, Modha, Deborah, Hunter, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5608-6144, Nguyen-Van-Tam, Jonathan, Regan, Christopher, Nichols, Gordon and Chalmers, Rachel (2014) The first recorded outbreak of cryptosporidiosis due to Cryptosporidium cuniculus (formerly rabbit genotype), following a water quality incident. Journal of Water and Health, 12 (1). pp. 41-50. ISSN 1477-8920

Preview

PDF (Rabbit outbreak paper 2014) - Draft Version Download (195kB) | Preview

Abstract

We report the first identified outbreak of cryptosporidiosis with ryptosporidium cuniculus following a water quality incident in Northamptonshire, UK. A standardised, enhanced Cryptosporidium exposure questionnaire was administered to all cases of cryptosporidiosis after the incident. Stool samples, water testing, microscopy slides and rabbit gut contents positive for Cryptosporidium were typed at the Cryptosporidium Reference Unit, Singleton Hospital, Swansea. Twenty-three people were microbiologically linked to the incident although other evidence suggests an excess of 422 cases of cryptosporidiosis above baseline. Most were adult females; unusually for cryptosporidiosis there were no affected children identified under the age of 5 years. Water consumption was possibly higher than in national drinking water consumption patterns. Diarrhoea duration was negatively correlated to distance from the water treatment works where the contamination occurred. Oocyst counts were highest in water storage facilities. This outbreak is the first caused by C. cuniculus infection to have been noted and it has conclusively demonstrated that this species can be a human pathogen. Although symptomatically similar to cryptosporidiosis from C. parvum or C. hominis, this outbreak has revealed some differences, in particular no children under 5 were identified and females were over-represented. These dissimilarities are unexplained although we postulate possible explanations.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cryptosporidium,outbreak,rabbit,water quality,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Jan 2015 13:26
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 01:25
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/51704
DOI:	10.2166/wh.2013.097

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item