Prevalence of Cryptosporidium among Dairy Cows in Thailand

Abstract

Cryptosporidium species are frequently associated with diarrhea among AIDS patients in Thailand, and dairy herds are a possible source of some of these infections. A cross-sectional study was performed to determine if Cryptosporidium is present among dairy cows in Thailand. Fecal samples were randomly collected from 363 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows from 108 of 860 farms in the Nong Pho region of central Thailand. The average prevalence of Cryptosporidium among dairy cows was 9.4%, according to an assay for Cryptosporidium-specific antigen (CSA) and 0.6% by microscopic examination of acid-fast stained feces. CSA was detected in all host age categories tested, but was most prevalent among calves (15.1%). Overall, 31.5% of farms were contaminated with Cryptosporidium infections. Fifty percent of poorly managed farms had CSA-positive cows, which were more likely to contaminate water and raw milk, while 12.9% of farms with acceptable management practices had CSA-positive cows. There was no association between the detection of Cryptosporidium and other gastrointestinal parasites. These results indicate that Cryptosporidium is enzootic among Thai dairy cattle, and suggest that cattle could have a role in zoonotic cryptosporidiosis in Thailand.

Molecular analysis of Cryptosporidium from cattle from five states of Peninsular Malaysia

“…The current study has demonstrated a relatively low prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection (3.3%) in cattle on the six studied farms. This percentage is lower than those previously reported in studies conducted in Malaysia [13,14], Thailand [32][33][34], Vietnam [35], Sri Lanka [25] and China [36], which reported of prevalences ranging from 9.4% to 62.1%. In the present study, only C. bovis and C. ryanae were identified in the cattle, whilst C. parvum, the most common zoonotic species in cattle [2,37] was not detected in any of the tested samples.…”

Prevalence and molecular characterization of human and bovine Cryptosporidium isolates in Thailand

“…infections in cattle were 13% by AFS. This is higher than the prevalence (0.6%) of Cryptosporidium found among dairy cows in the Nong Pho region of central Thailand by AFS reported by Jittapalapong et al (2006) and lower than the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in Tanzania and Zambia (Swai et al 2007;Geurden et al 2006). However, Cryptosporidium infection correlated with host age, which is an important factor characterizing the distribution of Cryptosporidium infections and suggesting a degree of resistance conferred to individuals infected early in life (Arslan and Vicki 1999;Castro-Hermida et al 2002;Tanriverdi et al 2006;Kvac et al 2006;Lefay et al 2000;Geurden et al 2006;Azami 2007;Uga et al 2000;Nguyen et al 2007).…”

Prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in the water resources of the Kuang River catchment, Northern Thailand

“…Kaewthamasorn and Wongsamee (2006) screened 207 faecal samples of beef cattle in Nan Province, Northern Thailand but did not detect either parasite in their samples. While we did not detect either Cryptosporidium or Giardia in faecal samples of dairy cattle at our study site, other Thai studies have (Inpankaew et al, 2010;Jittapalapong et al, 2006Jittapalapong et al, , 2011Nuchjangreed et al, 2008). In Northern Thailand, the seroprevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum infection of 642 dairy cows were 3.3%, 5.1% and 3.0% in the provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Lampang, respectively (Inpankaew et al, 2009).…”