Giovanni Milanez
Frederick Masangkay
Voravuth Somsak
Manas Kotepui
Jitbanjong Tangpong (corresponding author)
Biomedical Science Program, School of Allied
Health Sciences,
Walailak University,
Nakhon Si Thammarat 8016, Thailand
E-mail: rjitbanj@wu.ac.th
ABSTRACT
Water reservoirs are important manmade structures providing water security to deliver clean and safe
water for drinking and other purposes to the community. Eighty water samples were collected from
Magat and Ipo water reservoirs using purposive sampling between November 2018 and January 2019.
Water samples were collected in sterile containers for testing. The samples were cultured in non-
nutrient agar and lawned with Escherichia coli and incubated at 33 C. Twelve out of the 80 (15%) water
samples were positive for amoebic growth. Light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed
double-walled cystic stages and were initially identified as Acanthamoeba spp. based on morphological
characteristic in reference to Page’s established criteria. Their extracted DNAs were used in polymerase
chain reaction using JDP1 and JDP2 primers and confirmed the presence of Acanthamoeba DNA in
agarose gel electrophoresis. Aligned sequences from PCR products were deposited in GenBank under
accession numbers MK886460, MK909919, MK905437, MK910997, MK911021 and MK886514.
The presence of potentially pathogenic Acanthamoeba spp. in water reservoirs is considered a potential
risk for public health, requiring appropriate processing of water in treatment plants.
http://iwaponline.com/jwh/article-pdf/18/2/118/709131/jwh0180118.pdf