Prevalence,water borne transmission and chemotherapy of cryptosporidiosis in small ruminants

The present study was conducted to record the prevalence of cryptosporidium in small ruminants with relation to age,diarrhoea in animals and water borne transmission. c. parvum is a zoonotic protozoan of all mammals,causes severe diarrhea that leads to great economic losses as small ruminants are a major source of cash for many rural populations,especially in semi-arid and arid regions of developing countries. transmission occurs by direct contact with infected animals and contaminated food or water. to determine the prevalence of c. parvum a total of 300 animals (n=150 sheep and n=150 goats) with or without diarrheoa were monitored. prevalence was recorded as 18.66% in goats and 21.33% in sheep. it was more prevalent (40%) in lambs. out of positive animals 75% goats and 71.87% sheep were with diarrhoea. chemotherapeutic trial of two anti parasitic drugs paromomycine and metronidazole were used to check their efficacy against cryptosporidium in positive animals. both showed significant results against positive control and reduction in egg count at different days. metronidazole was found to be more efficacious.to check the waterborne transmission of cryptosporidium a total of 200 water samples were collected from different water sources i.e.,50 tap water,50 mineral bottle water,50 underground (tube well) and 50 canal water. c. parvum was identified by measuring the size using stage micrometry and morphology. overall 10.5% prevalence was observed in water samples containing 28% c. parvum oocysts in canal water,8% in tap water and 4% in underground water,whereas no oocyst was found in mineral water bottles. copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.