Studies On Intestinal Parasite Species And Genotyping Cryptosporidiumandersoni In Dairy Cattle In Shaanxi Province

Intestinal parasites have been known as common pathogens of animals and human. Theycan cause weight loss, affecting the growth and development and even death.Cryptosporidium is one of the most important zoonotic protozoan parasites, which can spreadthrough contacting with infected human and animals or contaminated food and water. There isno effective drug or vaccine for cryptosporidiosis, which is a severe threat to human healthand result in significant economic losses. Grasping intestinal parasite species and populationstructure of Cryptosporidium will supply basis for prevention and treatment of the parasiticdiseases. Here, the objectives of the present study were to investigate the species of intestinalparasite and identify the molecular characteristics of Cryptosporidium in dairy cattle, andcompare them with Qinchuan cattle in Shaanxi province.1. A total of1224and847fecal samples from dairy cattle and Qinchuan cattle,respectively, were examined by saturation salt solution float method and Sheather’s sugarflotation technique. Coccidian oocysts were the most common intestinal parasites, theprevalence in dairy cattle was43.14%, which was higher than that in Qinchuan cattle. Theprevalences of nematode eggs were15.36%and16.18%in diary cattle and Qinchuan cattle,respectively. The infection rate of Cryptosporidium oocysts were2.61%and4.49%for dairycattle and Qinchuan cattle. The cestode eggs had the lowest incidence. The highest infectionrates of coccidian, nematode and cestode were found in3-11month old cattle.2. A total of32and38Cryptosporidium microscopically positive samples from diarycattle and Qinchuan cattle were identified as Cryptosporidium andersoni (C. andersoni) bycharacterizations of the SSU rRNA and COWP genes loci.3. The subtype of C. andersoni isolates were analyzed by MLST technique. A total of57C.andersoni samples were successfully typed at all four genetic loci. For C. andersoni isolated fromdairy cattle,2MLST subtype were identified including subtype A1, A4, A4, A1and subtype A4,A4, A4, A1. Four MLST subtypes (subtype A4, A4, A4, A1, subtype A2, A4, A4, A1, subtype A2,A4, A2, A1, subtype A4, A4, A2, A1) were found in Qinchuan cattle. These results indicated thatC. andersoni in Qinchuan cattle had a higher genetic polymorphism than that in dairy cattle andall of these C. andersoni isolates presented a clonal genetic structure in Shaanxi province.