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Assistant Research Professor, Center for Land-Sea Interactions, Marine Science Center,  Anna L. Bass, Ph.D. has published an article in the Journal of Parasitology titled “Detection of Cryptosporidium sp. in Two New Seal Species, Phoca vitulina and Cystophora cristata, and a Novel Cryptosporidium Genotype in a Third Seal Species, Pagophilus groenlandicus, from the Gulf of Maine.”  

In this article, the occurrence and distribution of a parasitic protozoan were explored in both terrestrial and marine organisms in Maine and the Gulf of Maine.  Of the more than 250 samples investigated for protozoan presence, only the marine species, the seals, were affected by this parasite.  

Surprisingly, the research documented a previously unknown type of Cryptosporidium in a new host, the harp seal.  A large degree of genetic differentiation from the previously seal-associated Cryptosporidium sp. suggests that this novel genotype may represent a new species.

Additionally, the hosts of the seal-associated Cryptosporidium sp. have now been extended from a single species to multiple species, and the range of this seal-associated Cryptosporidium sp. has been extended southward.

The published research is the first publication from a larger study on zoonotic parasites in Maine and the Gulf of Maine conducted by Bass and colleagues in the Center for Land-Sea Interactions.

Bass, A.L., C.C. Wallace, P.O. Yund, and T.E. Ford. 2012. Detection of Cryptosporidium sp. in Two New Seal Species, Phoca vitulina and Cystophora cristata, and a Novel Cryptosporidium Genotype in a Third Seal Species, Pagophilus groenlandicus, from the Gulf of Maine. Journal of Parasitology 98(2):316-322.