VESICOUNT

Methods for quantification of free protozea vesicles containing legionella in a water environment

Coordinatore	UNIVERSITE DE TECHNOLOGIE DE COMPIEGNE    more  Organization address address: RUE DU DOCTEUR SCHWEITZER CS 60319 CENTRE PIERRE GUILLAUMAT city: COMPIEGNE CEDEX postcode: 60203 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Andre Cognome: Pauss Email: send email Telefono: +33 3 44 23 44 57 Fax: 0033 3 44 23 52 16
Nazionalità Coordinatore	France [FR]
Totale costo	831˙557 €
EC contributo	831˙557 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2007-3-1-IAPP
Funding Scheme	MC-IAPP
Anno di inizio	2008
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2008-10-01   -   2012-09-30

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSITE DE TECHNOLOGIE DE COMPIEGNE  Organization address address: RUE DU DOCTEUR SCHWEITZER CS 60319 CENTRE PIERRE GUILLAUMAT city: COMPIEGNE CEDEX postcode: 60203 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Andre Cognome: Pauss Email: send email Telefono: +33 3 44 23 44 57 Fax: 0033 3 44 23 52 16	FR (COMPIEGNE CEDEX)	coordinator	0.00
2	ASCAL  Organization address city: FORBACH postcode: 57600 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Christine Cognome: Chaverot Email: send email Telefono: 33474722640 Fax: 33474261559	FR (FORBACH)	participant	0.00
3	TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN  Organization address address: HELMHOLTZSTRASSE 10 city: DRESDEN postcode: 1069 contact info Titolo: Dr. Nome: Christian Cognome: Lück Email: send email Telefono: -4586882 Fax: -4586612	DE (DRESDEN)	participant	0.00

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Legionella are an important health and environment issue. Regular outbreaks of Legionellosis in certain cases causing the disease of patients show the dangerousness and reality of an infection risk. A significant number of Legionella contaminations are related to industrial complexes where cooling towers present a high Legionella risk. The bacteria colonize the water of these cooling towers and in some cases they are transported outside by the exhaust steam and may thus cause infections. The Vesicount project focuses on Legionella in cooling towers and public health constituting the main industrial and community risk issue. Current difficulties in Legionella detection and treatment arise because the bacteria are sometimes contained in protozoa vesicles where they grow and multiply. The vesicles do not appear with classic detection methods. Also they are able to protect Legionella from deleterious action of disinfectants and biocides. Vesicount project is intended as a long term industry-academia-cooperation concerning research for, firstly, indisputable methods detecting digestives vesicles transported and freed by typical protozoa containing Legionella inside of the industrial cooling towers and, secondly, for efficient ways of eliminating them in a healthy and reliable way. The university partners contribute to this project by offering specialized research experience and the industrial partner by bringing in his field experience. Secondments, recruitments and knowledge transfer between the partners will give the necessary frame to this 4 year cooperation aiming at the establishment of a new Legionella detection and treatment standard.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Legionella infiltration can occur in cooling systems. A European study set up a novel counting method for monitoring bacterial infection of water systems.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Legionella species are gram-negative bacteria found in freshwater sources and can cause Pontiac fever or Legionnaires' disease, a severe pneumonia-driven multi-system condition.

Large hot water systems such as cooling towers provide the ideal environment for the rapid expansion of Legionella bacteria which penetrate the pulmonary track through water droplets.

Although factors such as bacterial concentration in water and strain virulence are probably implicated in Legionella outbreaks, the composition of the infective aerosol has not been extensively studied.

Several reports show that protozoans naturally present in water favour the growth of Legionella bacteria or help the formation of Legionella-containing vesicles.The EU-funded 'Methods for quantification of free protozea vesicles containing legionella in a water environment' (VESICOUNT) project aimed to isolate and characterise the vesicles that get secreted from Legionella-infected protozoa such as amoebae.

Researchers were able to identify 11 different types of vesicle-like structures and developed protocols to characterise them.A co-culture was set up between the most common environmental amoebae and a genetically modified strain of Legionella pneumophila which glows green, thereby facilitating its detection.

Apart from vesicles containing live bacteria, researchers identified structures that resembled remnants of membranes and contained Legionella clusters.Measurements were performed over a four-month period in an industrial plant with two different cooling tower circuits.

Data indicated that above 13 degrees Celsius protozoa were capable of entering the water system and identified certain system parameters that supported their growth.

VESICOUNT work led to the identification and characterisation of elements releasedfrom the protozoa-Legionella co-existence in a water system.

the methods devised by the project could be useful for water system monitoring.