Molecular detection of Cryptosporidium spp. infections in water buffaloes from northeast Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the individual and herd-level prevalence and genotype of Cryptosporidium and to identify putative risk factors associated with Cryptosporidium spp. infections in water buffaloes in northeast Thailand. Fecal samples from 600 water buffaloes of 287 farms in six provinces were collected and tested using DMSO-modified acid-fast staining and polymerase chain reaction. The overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium infections in buffaloes was 5.7 and 8.7% among individual animals and herds, respectively. The provinces with highest infected Cryptosporidium were located in the Sakon Nakhon Basin in the northern part of the region. In addition, higher herd prevalence was observed among farms with more than five buffaloes (30%) than those with five or less animals (16.2%). Thirty (88.2%) of the 34 Cryptosporidium-positive samples were Cryptosporidium parvum and four (11.8%) were Cryptosporidium ryanae.

First report of Cryptosporidium species in farmed and wild buffalo from the Northern Territory, Australia

“…parvum was the predominant species in young buffaloes (Cacciò et al 2007;Maurya et al 2013;Inpankaew et al 2014), and in the previous study in Australia, C. parvum was only detected in buffalo <6 months of age (Abeywardena et al 2013a). In the present study, however, all buffalo samples were adults (2-5 years), indicating that this species can also commonly infect adult buffaloes.…”

“…This species has been detected previously in buffaloes in many countries including Spain, Italy, Australia, Egypt, India, and Thailand (Amer et al 2013;Cacciò et al 2007;Gómez-Couso et al 2005;Maurya et al 2013;Abeywardena et al 2013a;Inpankaew et al 2014;Mahfouz et al 2014;Aquino et al 015). Previous studies have reported that C.…”

“…A previous study of Cryptosporidium in farmed water buffalo in Victoria reported a prevalence of 13.0 % (62/476) (Abeywardena et al 2013a). Other studies have reported prevalences in buffalo ranging from 5.7 to 62.1 % (Amer et al 2013;Inpankaew et al 2014;Abeywardena et al 2014;Aquino et al 2015;Ma et al 2015).…”

“…However, relatively little is known about the range of species and genotypes of Cryptosporidium in other members of the family Bovidae, including water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), but to date, C. parvum, C. ryanae, C. bovis, C. ubiquitum, a "C. suis-like" genotype, and C. ryanae variants have been reported (Gómez-Couso et al 2005;Cacciò et al 2007;Feng et al 2012;Venu et al 2012;Abeywardena et al 2013a;Abu Samra et al 2013;Amer et al 2013;Helmy et al 2013;Inpankaew et al 2014;Mahfouz et al2014;Ma et al 2015;Abeywardena et al 2015;Aquino et al 2015;Helmy et al 2015).…”

First Molecular Characterization of Cryptosporidium spp. Infecting Buffalo Calves in Brazil

“…() in Egypt and Inpankaew et al. () in Thailand. Together with these publications, our study confirms that C. ryanae infects other ruminants than cattle, and is likely to infect buffaloes worldwide.…”