About this Research Topic
Improving our understanding of environmental transmission routes of these protozoa and (oo)cyst survival is important in assessing and mitigating against disease risk. In addition to being essential for a One Health approach to tackle human and animal infections. Where no specific drug intervention is available, robust, efficient detection, viability and typing methods are required to assess risk and to further epidemiological understanding. Indeed, (i) the need to extract organisms efficiently from a variety of matrices including water, sludge, soil and food; (ii) the need to detect small numbers of organisms consistently and accurately; and (iii) the need to determine the viability, infectivity of the organisms isolated, with respect to public and veterinary health, pose a variety of problems.
The threat to public and veterinary health posed by the presence of transmissive stages in our environment, must be translated into a challenge to develop sensitive detection methods. This Research Topic will focus on (i) both epidemiological and risk assessment approaches to control infection which are dependent upon an assessment of the occurrence and survival of the transmissive stage in the environment and (ii) the interaction between the parasite and the matrices.
We welcome original research, reviews, and mini review on but not limited to the following sub-themes with regards to these protozoan parasites:
• Parasite detection by tracking these protozoa: sources of infection, environmental contamination, and animal reservoirs.
• Classical and novel approaches to isolation and detection to increase method sensitivity.
• Insights into the molecular diversity of these parasites: population-based study to infer patterns of genetic diversity from host shifting.
• Insights into parasites interactions with matrices for developing strategies to block transmission.
Keywords: Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Cyclospora, Toxoplasma, Detection, Transmission
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.