Giardia duodenalis is one of the most widespread intestinal parasites of humans and other vertebrates. In terms of public health, identification of Giardia assemblages in wildlife is important because only some assemblages of G. duodenalis can infect humans. Here, we use loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and  genotyping of analysis of the β-giardin gene to screen the zoonotic assemblages of G. duodenalis recovered from faeces of free-living European wildcats (Felis s. silvestris) from Luxembourg. Giardia DNA was detected in one animal (10%) and assigned to assemblage B by both methods. This is the first detection and genotyping  of G. duodenalis in a European wild felid in general, and of assemblage B in particular. Free-living wildcats may act as reservoirs of G. duodenalis infectious for humans and other wildlife and domestic animals. Using a combination of LAMP- and genotyping-based methods allowed effective, sensitive, and rapid detection of a zoonotic G. duodenalis assemblage B in wildlife.

A new species of myxozoan, Kudoa viseuensis n. sp. (Myxosporea: Multivalvulida), is described based on specimens extracted from the musculature of the Pacuma toadfish, Batrachoides surinamensis, collected in the municipality of Viseu, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. A total of 60 specimens of B. surinamensis were examined, of which 52 (86%) presented whitish pseudocysts containing numerous rounded spores (7.2±0.2 μm in length and 5.2±0.2 μm in width). These spores have four polar capsules of equal size, measuring 1.8±0.2 μm x 1.3±0.1 μm in the apical view, and 2.7±0.2 μm x 1.3±0.1 μm in the lateral view. A partial sequence (1400  bps) of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene was obtained and deposited in GenBank (access number: MK256272). The comparison of the morphological and molecular data with those of other Kudoa species supported the description of a new species of mixosporean from the Amazon region, which is denominated here as Kudoa viseuensis n. sp.

Isospora sepetibensis Berto, Flausino, Luz, Ferreira and Lopes, 2008 is a protozoan coccidian parasite (Chromista: Miozoa: Coccidiomorphea: Coccidia) that was originally described from Brazilian tanagers Ramphocelus bresilius (Linnaeus, 1766) in the Marambaia Island in the Coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro. In the current  work, this species was identified from black-goggled tanagers Trichothraupis melanops (Vieillot, 1818) in the Itatiaia National Park, which is a protected area with a high degree of vulnerability in the interior of the State of Rio de Janeiro, distant in more than 100 km of the type-locality. Its oocysts are sub-spherical to elongate  ovoidal, 25.9 × 20.7 μm with smooth, bi-layered wall, ~ 1.3 μm and length/width ratio of 1.1–1.4 (1.26). Micropyle and oocyst residuum absent, but one or two polar granules are present. Sporocysts are ellipsoidal, 16.8 × 10.3 μm, with both Stieda and sub-Stieda bodies. Sporocyst residuum present  and sporozoites with refractile body and nucleus. Molecular analysis was conducted at the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene. This new isolate exhibited similarity greater than 98% with Isospora spp. isolates from other Neotropical passerines and with an Isospora sp. pseudoparasite of voles of Eurasia. This is the first coccidian  parasite from a New World tanager to have a molecular identification of the cox1 gene.

In this study, we report that the unicellular free-living protist Colpoda cucullus in the resting cyst (cryptobiosis) repairs stress damage. We previously demonstrated that resting cysts of Colpoda cucullus have extreme tolerance to gamma irradiation and can revert to vegetative cells after irradiation. Such irradiated cysts gradually  excyst, suggesting that stress repair mechanisms are active during excystment or in the resting cyst. Herein we provide bioassay evidence that the rate of excystment of irradiated cysts is elevated by subsequent incubation, thereby indicating that cells injured by gamma irradiation can repair themselves in the resting cyst,  whereas irradiated dry cysts cannot.

The algal medium was optimized to increase the biomass and lipid production of Chlorococcum oleofaciens. The significant variables were screened and chosen from previously reported algal culture media using Plackett Burman Design (PBD). Optimization of the significant variables were performed using central composite  design. The Pareto chart for PBD revealed that the salts such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and ferrous sulphate had enhanced the biomass and lipid production. The variables and its effect on the responses were further studied by central composite design (CCD). A new medium was formulated based  on the response surface methodology. The predicted concentration of NaHCO3, NaNO3, KNO3, MgSO4.7H2O were found to be 6.75 g/L, 0.75 g/L, 1.88 g/L and 0.35 g/L respectively. The actual and the predicted total lipid yield for the optimized media was around 0.74 g/L and 0.78 g/L respectively. The optimal medium has been named as AM medium. Growth and the lipid yields of C. oleofaciens were found higher in AM medium. The specific growth rates of C. oleofaciens in AM and CFTRI media were found to be 0.14 day-1 and 0.19 day-1 respectively. The biomass produced by the optimized AM medium was found to be 2.7 times greater compared to  the CFTRI medium. The lipid was extracted and GC-MS was performed which revealed that the fatty acids were predominantly of the class C15:0, C18:0, C16:0 and C12:0. It is concluded that besides lipid content, AM medium increased the cell number leading to the increase in biomass.