Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: 10.3390/medicina55080492
Title: Co‐occurrence of free‐living amoeba and legionella in drinking water supply systems
Authors: Valciņa, Olga
Pūle, Daina
Mališevs, Artjoms
Trofimova, Jūlija
Makarova, Svetlana
Konvisers, Genadijs
Bērziņš, Aivars
Krūmiņa, Angelika
Department of Infectology
Keywords: Amoeba;Co-occurrence;Legionella;Protozoa;Water;3.1 Basic medicine;3.2 Clinical medicine;1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database;General Medicine
Issue Date: Aug-2019
Citation: Valciņa , O , Pūle , D , Mališevs , A , Trofimova , J , Makarova , S , Konvisers , G , Bērziņš , A & Krūmiņa , A 2019 , ' Co‐occurrence of free‐living amoeba and legionella in drinking water supply systems ' , Medicina (Lithuania) , vol. 55 , no. 8 , 492 . https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina55080492
Abstract: Background and Objectives: Legionella is one of the most important water-related pathogens. Inside the water supply systems and the biofilms, Legionella interact with other bacteria and free-living amoeba (FLA). Several amoebas may serve as hosts for bacteria in aquatic systems. This study aimed to investigate the co-occurrence of Legionella spp. and FLA in drinking water supply systems. Materials and Methods: A total of 268 water samples were collected from apartment buildings, hotels, and public buildings. Detection of Legionella spp. was performed in accordance with ISO 11731:2017 standard. Three different polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocols were used to identify FLA. Results: Occurrence of Legionella varied from an average of 12.5% in cold water samples with the most frequent occurrence observed in hot water, in areas receiving untreated groundwater, where 54.0% of the samples were Legionella positive. The occurrence of FLA was significantly higher. On average, 77.2% of samples contained at least one genus of FLA and, depending on the type of sample, the occurrence of FLA could reach 95%. In the samples collected during the study, Legionella was always isolated along with FLA, no samples containing Legionella in the absence of FLA were observed. Conclusions: The data obtained in our study can help to focus on the extensive distribution, close interaction, and long-term persistence of Legionella and FLA. Lack of Legionella risk management plans and control procedures may promote further spread of Legionella in water supply systems. In addition, the high incidence of Legionella-related FLA suggests that traditional monitoring methods may not be sufficient for Legionella control.
Description: Funding Information: Funding: This study was funded by National Research Programme No. 7, Agricultural Resources for Sustainable Production of Qualitative and Healthy Foods in Latvia project No. 5 “Resistance of microorganisms and other biological and chemical risks: research procedure development and application in the food chain.” Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
DOI: 10.3390/medicina55080492
ISSN: 1010-660X
Appears in Collections:Research outputs from Pure / Zinātniskās darbības rezultāti no ZDIS Pure

Files in This Item:


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.