Cloning of Thai strain Giardia intestinalis.

Axenic cultures of Giardia intestinalis trophozoites were successfully established from human fecal specimens and rectal swabs from dogs using sucrose gradient centrifugation to separate the cysts from fecal material, the excystation method of Robert-Thompson et al. and culture of the preparation in TYI-S-33 medium supplemented with human serum, vitamin mixture and piper acillin and amikacin antibiotics, respectively. Fungal contamination could be controlled by amphotericin B at 10 micrograms per ml of medium. Clones of the parasites were obtained using a combination of dilution method and micromanipulation technique.