Publications by authors named "M Arrowood"
Article Synopsis
- Recent outbreaks of cyclosporiasis linked to U.S. fresh produce stress the need for more research on Cyclospora cayetanensis in agricultural settings.
- A study in Southeastern Georgia tracked C. cayetanensis in various water and waste samples over two years, finding significant variations in detection rates but suggesting some results might be false positives due to cross-reactions.
- The presence of human fecal markers indicates possible contamination in irrigation water, but there was no direct correlation with C. cayetanensis detections, highlighting the importance of testing methodology and the need for more precise sequencing in environmental studies.
The IOWA strain of Cryptosporidium parvum is widely used in studies of the biology and detection of the waterborne pathogens Cryptosporidium spp. While several lines of the strain have been sequenced, IOWA-II, the only reference of the original subtype (IIaA15G2R1), exhibits significant assembly errors. Here we generated a fully assembled genome of IOWA-CDC of this subtype using PacBio and Illumina technologies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe apicomplexan parasite causes seasonal foodborne outbreaks of the gastrointestinal illness cyclosporiasis. Prior to the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, annually reported cases were increasing in the USA, leading the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a genotyping tool to complement cyclosporiasis outbreak investigations. Thousands of US isolates and 1 from China (strain CHN_HEN01) were genotyped by Illumina amplicon sequencing, revealing 2 lineages (A and B).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCyclosporiasis is a diarrheal illness caused by the foodborne parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. Annually reported cases have been increasing in the United States prompting development of genotyping tools to aid cluster detection. A recently developed Cyclospora genotyping system based on 8 genetic markers was applied to clinical samples collected during the cyclosporiasis peak period of 2020, facilitating assessment of its epidemiologic utility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Cyclosporiasis, caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, leads to watery diarrhea and has seen an increase in cases in the US, prompting public health agencies to enhance outbreak investigation tools.
- The CDC developed a new detection system using deep sequencing and machine learning to identify genetic clusters of the parasite, with initial evaluations showing promising effectiveness, though early versions faced bioinformatics limitations.
- Recent improvements to the CDC's genotyping system addressed previous issues, and testing confirmed its strong performance, with high sensitivity (90%) and specificity (99%), paving the way for a nationwide network for C. cayetanensis monitoring.