Evaluating Transport of Cryptosporidium Oocysts Through Soils Using Polystyrene Microsphere Surrogates

Proceedings of the 2001 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 26 and 27, 2001, Athens, Georgia.Cryptosporidium parvum causes gastroenteritis in humans and is now recognized as an emerging pathogen. The inactive form, known as an oocyst, is excreted in the feces of infected animals and humans into the environment. Little is known about the transport of C. parvum oocysts through soil to reach and contaminate water bodies. A 40x30-m site at the outlet of an 8-ha grazing catchment just above a spring was instrumented to conduct a water budget analysis to evaluate soil-water and particle translocation. A tracer experiment using polystyrene microspheres, as surrogates to the oocysts, showed that microspheres had migrated through unsaturated soil to reach the ground water and spring within 20 days after injection 12-m upstream of the spring.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397) or the other conference sponsors