IT’S not just farm animals that can contaminate water supplies with a
parasite that causes severe diarrhoea, claim researchers.
Diminutive Californian ground squirrels can shed as much cryptosporidium as
cattle, say Edward Atwill and his colleagues at the University of California,
Davis. But others doubt that wild animals pose much of a risk.
Even in healthy people, cryptosporidium can cause diarrhoea, stomach cramps
and vomiting for days or weeks. For immunocompromised people, such as AIDS
patients, it can be deadly. There is no effective treatment.
The parasite is a threat because it can survive the chlorine treatments used
to disinfect…
