Magnetic Separation of Giardia Cysts from Water

Background: Giardia is one of the infectious agents that can be transmitted by surface water and cause a disease. We designed and fabricated a magnetic system to separate the giardia cysts from water. Materials and Methods: In this study, giardia cysts were concentrated by sucrose floatation method. The cysts were mixed with physiological saline and their concentration was adjusted to 100,000 cysts per cubic millimeter using Neubauer slide. The isolated cysts were passed through the magnetic field generated by the 200-msT magnets. The cysts were attracted to the magnet and removed from the suspension. The cysts were exposed to magnetic field for one week in order to evaluate the effect of magnetic field on their survival, which was reported as 0.1% using eosin staining under a light microscope. Results: The results showed that magnetic field can relatively absorb giardia cysts from water, the survival rate of the cysts did not change significantly in different days (P≥0.05). Conclusion: The designed magnetic system can be reinforced to isolate giardia cysts, which is economical and has no chemical effects on water.