parvum, two with C. bovis and 19 compatible with C. felis or C. ubiquitum. According to information provided by Abiraterone molecular weight the authors themselves, both C. felis and C. ubiquitum have the same restriction sites; therefore, they could not

conclude if it was C. felis or C. ubiquitum because sequencing of the positive PCR samples was not performed. The first reports of C. ubiquitum in humans were found by Ong et al. (2002) in fecal samples from patients with clinical symptoms consistent with cryptosporidiosis and by Trotz-Williams et al. (2006) in a fecal sample after PCR amplification of the 18S rRNA. Subsequently, sporadic cases of this species affecting humans have been described ( Feltus et al., 2006, Leoni et al., 2006 and Soba et al., 2006) and therefore C. ubiquitum should be considered a potential emerging zoonotic pathogen (Santin and Fayer, 2007). In the present study C. ubiquitum was observed only in lambs. In the U.S. and Belgium, this species is most prevalent in lambs when compared with weaned and adults ( Santín et al., 2007 and Geurden et al., 2008). However, in Australia, C. ubiquitum was more prevalent in weaned animals and was the this website most prevalent among the eight species and genotypes that were diagnosed ( Ryan et al., 2005). It is important to consider that the low frequency

of Cryptosporidium in this study may be related to the number of samples collected per animal, which was performed on only one occasion. Studies have shown that animals negative for oocysts in one sample analysis may be positive in other samples collected from the same

animal within an interval of a few days ( Santín et al., 2007). The age of sheep is also another factor to be considered. In this animal species, cryptosporidiosis also appears to have a higher prevalence in lambs less than Dichloromethane dehalogenase one month old, which is similar to results observed by Santín et al. (2007), Castro-Hermida et al. (2007) and Quílez et al. (2008). The results of this study demonstrate the need for further comprehensive molecular studies of sheep cryptosporidiosis in Brazil, with an epidemiological design and sample size determination based on the number of animals per region. Because of the low frequency of C. ubiquitum found, the risk for public health in this region may not be high. Feces from humans who live in the same area should also be examined for a conclusive study. The authors would like to thank Samira Salim Mello Gallo for technical support, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support. “
“Toxoplasma gondii is a globally distributed protozoan parasite. Domestic cats and other felids are the definitive hosts ( Frenkel et al., 1970), and virtually all warm-blooded animals, including humans, are the intermediate hosts ( Dubey and Beattie, 1988). Animals and humans can be infected by ingesting food or water contaminated with T. gondii oocysts or consuming T.