720039Development of a Molecular Screening Tool for Detection and Identification of Cryptosporidium for Water Treatment ApplicationsClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKCryptosporidium is a pathogen that is found in a number of livestock and wild animals. It may be passed to humans through drinking and recreational water systems and causes severe prolonged gastrointestinal infection, even death. There are numerous species of the pathogen, of which just 3 or 4 are known to be infectious to humans. The UK has a relatively high number of instances due to the rural nature of many water facilities and the associated relatively high rainfall. Water treatment facilities routinely monitor for Cryptosporidium oocyst-like structures using microscopy. Once a positive sample is identified, further analysis using DNA sequencing techniques at Swansea is necessary, to identify the exact species and ascertain whether it is infective to humans. Identification remains difficult in mixed contaminations, which are common. This incurs extra cost, time and puts pressure on the water supplier through possible shut down of treatment facilities to ensure no member of the public falls ill in the meantime. A project is proposed here, to develop a molecular tool that can combine the two elements of the existing methodology. The tool would be high throughput, enabling many samples to be processed in parallel, and would enable an accurate identification of any infective strains, in a competitive timescale. The key objectives proposed are: 1. Develop & optimise a high throughput molecular tool to be able to effectively separate and identify specific species of Cryptosporidium, present as single and mixed contaminations; 2. Validate the molecular tool using aliquots of real samples and compare the results obtained using molecular methods with those obtained by current methods. A molecular tool will enable high throughput routine screening capabilities, allowing a rapid response to potential outbreaks. As well as reducing costs and reputation effects following a possible shut-down, this offers savings to the water industry in terms of analytical time.