TY - JOUR AU - Vilela, Raquel AU - Taylor, John AU - Walker, Edward AU - Mendoza, Leonel T1 - Lagenidium giganteum Pathogenicity in Mammals T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2015 VL - 21 IS - 2 SP - 290 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Infections of mammals by species in the phylum Oomycota taxonomically and molecularly similar to known Lagenidium giganteum strains have increased. During 2013–2014, we conducted a phylogenetic study of 21 mammalian Lagenidium isolates; we found that 11 cannot be differentiated from L. giganteum strains that the US Environmental Protection Agency approved for biological control of mosquitoes; these strains were later unregistered and are no longer available. L. giganteum strains pathogenic to mammals formed a strongly supported clade with the biological control isolates, and both types experimentally infected mosquito larvae. However, the strains from mammals grew well at 25°C and 37°C, whereas the biological control strains developed normally at 25°C but poorly at higher temperatures. The emergence of heat-tolerant strains of L. giganteum pathogenic to lower animals and humans is of environmental and public health concern. KW - Oomycetes KW - Oomycota KW - fungal-like KW - Lagenidium KW - Lagenidium giganteum KW - Pythium insidiosum KW - pythiosis KW - lagenidiosis KW - biological control KW - fungi DO - 10.3201/eid2102.141091 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/2/14-1091_article ER - End of Reference