Prevalence and molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium sp. in pigs in Northwestern Russia

Abstract

Cryptosporidiosis is a widespread parasitic disease of many species of domestic and wild animals, as well as humans, which is a significant problem in the field of veterinary medicine and medicine. Farm animals, in particular piglets, are most often susceptible to this disease, however, the species composition of representatives of the genus Cryptosporidium in this animal species in the Russian Federation has remained unknown to this day. For the first time in the Russian Federation, in the conditions of the North-West, on the example of the Vologda region in pig farms with industrial technology of maintenance, as well as in private farms using the latest molecular genetic techniques, namely, using high-performance sequencing of amplicon libraries of fragments of the 18S rRNA gene obtained as a result of nested (nested) PCR, we have established the parasitism of C. scrofarum in all age groups of the examined animals. The infection rate of animals kept in pig farms was 34% (51/150), in farms – 32.4% (81/250). The most susceptible to infection are animals that are fattening at the age of 13-24 weeks.