Detected in Grand Teton National Park Hot Springs.

The free-living thermophilic amoeba () causes the highly fatal disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. The environmental conditions that are favorable to the growth and proliferation of are not well-defined, especially in northern regions of the United States. In this study, we used culture-based methods and multiple molecular approaches to detect and analyze and other spp. in water, sediment, and biofilm samples from five hot spring sites in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A. These results provide the first detections of in Grand Teton National Park and provide new insights into the distribution of pathogenic and other nonpathogenic spp. in natural thermal water systems in northern latitudes.