Cryptosporidium spp. are responsible for waterborne and foodborne outbreaks of Cryptosporidiosis. Molecular epidemiologic studies of cryptosporidiosis can help us to better undertand the environmental public health importance of cryptosporidium spieces. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and removal efficiency of Cryptosporidium by wastewater treatment, which is consisted of secondary activated sludge and Filtration. Inaddition, Cryptosporidium genotypes at the various treatment stages were identified. A total of 33 raw wastewater (RWW), 33 secondary effluent (SE), and 17 tertiary effluent (TE) samples were obtained from two demostic wastewater treatment plants. Samples were tested by microscopy for the presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts, in parallel Cryptosporidium oocysts were genotyped by nested PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The prevalence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in secondary effluents (63.6%) was highr than that observed in raw wastewater (51.5%), as measured by Immuno Fluorescent Assay (IFA). Nested PCR was found to be more sensitive than qPCR and IFA for the detection of Cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidium humanis genotype was identified in 58.3% RWW samples. The second dominant genotype was the bovine, which was identified 33.3% RWW samples. C. muris was identified in 5 RWW samples, C. melagridis was identified in 2 RWW samples and C. bailley was identified in one RWW sample. Cryptosporidium humanis and bovis genotypes were found to be the domenant genotypes in SE and TE. The results indicate that Cryptosporidium is present in at least 50% of wastewater effluents and the oocysts are not removed efficiently by secondary treatment and the tertiary treatment.
