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http://dx.doi.org/10.7845/kjm.2018.8040

Surveillance of viable Acanthamoeba spp. and Naegleria fowleri in major water sources for tap water in Korea  

Kim, Min-jeong (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Lee, Gyu-Cheol (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Kim, Kunwoo (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Lee, Hyunji (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Kim, Min Young (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Seo, Dae Keun (Drinking Water Quality and Management Team, K-water)
Lee, Jeong Yeob (Water Quality Research Center, K-water)
Cho, Young-Cheol (Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Microbiology / v.54, no.3, 2018 , pp. 237-243 More about this Journal
Abstract
The pathogenic free-living amoebas (FLAs), Acanthamoeba spp. and Naegleria fowleri, can cause fatal infections, including amoebic encephalitis. They are ubiquitously distributed in nature, including in diverse bodies of water. In order to survey Acanthamoeba spp. and N. fowleri in source water in Korea, we used culture-based real-time PCR to detect viable FLAs in 52 source water samples collected between July 2017 and December 2017. Acanthamoeba spp. and N. fowleri were detected in 42 samples (80.8%) and 6 samples (11.5%), respectively. Acanthamoeba spp. were detected at approximately the same frequency in all seasons, but N. fowleri was mainly detected in summer and autumn, with no N. fowleri detected in winter. These results demonstrate that these pathogenic FLAs, especially N. fowleri, which has caused deaths in the United States and China, are widely distributed in the Korean aquatic environment.
Keywords
free-living amoebas; pathogenic amoebas; protozoan parasites; real-time PCR; source water;
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