Isolation of a vahlkampfiid amoeba from a contact lens: Tetramitus ovis (Schmidt, 1913) n. comb.

A vahlkampfiid amoeba has been isolated from a contact lens. Based on 5.8S rDNA sequence analysis the strain belongs to the genus Tetramitus. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS1 and ITS2) sequences differ by 3 and 9 bp, respectively, from T. lobospinosus. The morphology of the cyst does not correspond to T. lobospinosus, but is identical to that published for Vahlkampfia ovis at the beginning of the last century. There is no reference strain of V. ovis to investigate using molecular techniques. Therefore, we propose that the strain under study should be considered to represent the neotype strain of V. ovis, now classified as T. ovis (Schmidt, 1913) n. comb.