Human waterborne protozoan parasites in freshwater bivalves (Anodonta anatina and Unio tumidus) as potential indicators of fecal pollution in urban reservoir

The presence of environmentally robust dispersive stages of intestinal protozoan parasites in waters represents an important public health threat since these pathogens have caused numerous outbreaks related to either drinking or recreational waters. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia and Blastocystis cysts, and microsporidian spores in mussels collected from municipal reservoir, Lake Malta (Poland, Europe). Two species of freshwater bivalves (Anodonta anatina and Unio tumidus) were tested for the enteropathogens. A direct wet smear and smears stained with chromotrope 2R, Ziehl–Neelsen and iron hematoxylin made from each pellet of the hemolymph, gills and gastrointestinal homogenates of mussels were examined microscopically. In the study the immunofluorescence antibody test kit MERIFLUOR Cryptosporidium/Giardia was also used for all bivalve samples. None of investigated parasites were found in U. tumidus. In A. anatina, Cryptosporidium oocysts and Blastocystis cysts were detected in 15.4 and 5.1% of mussel samples, respectively. The present results indicate contamination of Lake Malta with Cryptosporidium and Blastocystis, which is important from the point of view of public health threats because of different human uses of studied reservoir.