Protozoa interaction with aquatic invertebrate: interest for watercourses biomonitoring

Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium parvum, and Giardia duodenalis are human waterborne protozoa. These worldwide parasites had been detected in various watercourses as recreational, surface, drinking, river, and seawater. As of today, water protozoa detection was based on large water filtration and on sample concentration. Another tool like aquatic invertebrate parasitism could be used for sanitary and environmental biomonitoring. In fact, organisms like filter feeders could already filtrate and concentrate protozoa directly in their tissues in proportion to ambient concentration. So molluscan shellfish can be used as a bioindicator of protozoa contamination level in a site since they were sedentary. Nevertheless, only a few researches had focused on nonspecific parasitism like protozoa infection on aquatic invertebrates. Objectives of this review are twofold: Firstly, an overview of protozoa in worldwide water was presented. Secondly, current knowledge of protozoa parasitism on aquatic invertebrates was detailed and the lack of data of their biological impact was pointed out.