Abstract
This study assessed the prevalence, species and subtypes of Cryptosporidium in goats from Guangdong Province, Hubei Province, Shandong Province, and Shanghai City of China. Six hundred and four fecal samples were collected from twelve goat farms, and the overall infection rate was 11.4% (69/604). Goats infected with Cryptosporidium were found in eleven farms across four provincial areas, and the infection rate ranged from 2.9% (1/35) to 25.0% (9/36). Three Cryptosporidium species were identified. Cryptosporidium xiaoi (45/69, 65.2%) was the dominant species, followed by C. parvum (14/69, 20.3%) and C. ubiquitum (10/69, 14.5%). The infection rate of Cryptosporidium spp. was varied with host age and goat kids were more susceptible to be infected than adult goats. Subtyping C. parvum and C. ubiquitum positive samples revealed C. parvum subtype IIdA19G1 and C. ubiquitum subtype XIIa were the most common subtypes. Other C. parvum subtypes were detected as well, such as IIaA14G2R1, IIaA15G1R1, IIaA15G2R1 and IIaA17G2R1. All of these subtypes have also been detected in humans, suggesting goats may be a potential source of zoonotic cryptosporidiosis. This was the first report of C. parvum subtypes IIaA14G2R1, IIaA15G1R1 and IIaA17G2R1 infecting in goats and the first molecular identification of C. parvum and its subtypes in Chinese goats.
Highlights
Cryptosporidium is an intestinal protozoan parasite that reportedly infects humans and animals worldwide [1]
The highest infection rate was in Gongan-4 farm (25.0%, 9/36) of Hubei Province, while the Gongan-3 farm had no Cryptosporidium positive samples (Table 2)
Among the eleven farms with Cryptosporidium infection, the infection rates ranged from 2.9% to 25.0% (Table 2)
Summary
Cryptosporidium is an intestinal protozoan parasite that reportedly infects humans and animals worldwide [1]. Numerous molecular biological techniques have detected Cryptosporidium species/genotype and subtypes and will improve our understanding of cryptosporidiosis transmission in man and animals [3]. The first Cryptosporidium infection in a goat was reported in Australia [4] and has since been reported worldwide [2]. Few investigations report the molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium species/genotypes in goats. Belgium [5], Egypt [6], France [7], India [8], Italy [9], Norway [10], Spain [11], Sri Lanka [12], the Czech Republic [13], and Zambia [14] have all found Cryptosporidium parvum as the dominant species. Other species/ genotypes, such as C. hominis, C. xiaoi, C. ubiquitum, C. andersoni, Cryptosporidium rat genotype and a novel Cryptosporidium genotype were described in goats [10,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]
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