Table 1.

Primer and probes used for in-house real-time PCR assays in study.

Parasites	Forward primer sequence, 5′→3′	Target	Reference
	Reverse primer sequence, 5′→3′
	Probe sequence (FAM), 5′→3′
Giardia lamblia	GAC GGC TCA GGA CAA CGG TT TTG CCA GCG GTG TCC G CCC GCG GCG GTC CCT GCT AG	ssu-rRNA	Verweij et al. (2004) [1]
C. parvum/C. hominis   (assay 1)	CTT TTT ACC AAT CAC AGA ATC ATC AGA TGT GTT TGC CAA TGC ATA TGA A TCG ACT GGT ATC CCT ATA A	DNA J-like protein gene	Bruijnesteijn  van  Coppenraet  et al.   (2009) [4]
C. parvum/C. hominis (assay 2)	CGC TTC TCT AGC CTT TCA TGA CTT CAC GTG TGT TTG CCA AT CCA ATC ACA GAA TCA TCA GAA TCG ACT GGT ATC	DNA J-like protein gene	Fontaine  and  Guillot   (2002) [14]
C. parvum/C. hominis (assay 3)	GAA CTG TAC AGA TGC TTG GGA GAA T CCTT CGT TAG TTG AAT CCT CTT TCC A TTG GAG CTC ATA TCA G   C. hominis probe CTT GGA GCT CGT ATC AG   C. parvum probe	Specific protein-coding gene	Yang et al. (2013) [15]
Entamoeba histolytica	ATT GTC GTG GCA TCC TAA CTC A GCG GAC GGC TCA TTA TAA CA CAT TGA ATG AAT TGG CCA TT	ssu-rRNA	Verweij et al. (2004) [1] Stensvold et al.   (2010) [16]
Internal control
Phocine herpesvirus (PhHV)	GGG CGA ATC ACA GAT TGA ATC GCG GTT CCA AAC GTA CCA A TTT TTA TGT GTC CGC CAC CAT CTG GAT C	Glycoprotein B	Niesters   (2001) [13]