This study investigates the potential for biological repair in UV-irradiated oocysts, and it presents the results of concurrent lines of investigation to examine whether reactivation occurs following UV disinfection and also to determine if C. parvum has the genetic basis for repair. The primary objectives of the study included the following: Determine whether C. parvum oocysts of multiple isolates, irradiated with varying doses of UV light, can repair and regain infectivity under light or dark conditions using in-vitro cell culture with a human cell line. Confirm cell culture results with...

Cell culture techniques are routinely used for measuring the infectivity of a wide range of human pathogens. A variety of different cell culture systems and detection methodologies have been applied to Cryptosporidium parvum. However, the correlation between cell culture methods and animal infectivity assays has not been thoroughly investigated. Although many cell culture methods have been developed for C. parvum, it has not been proven that infectivity in cell culture is a good indicator of the ability of oocysts to cause infections in animals. The objective of this research was to compare...