Acta Vet. Brno 2023, 92: 243-250
Prevalence and molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium spp. in calves in the Siirt Province, Türkiye
, Tekin Şahin1, Burçak Aslan Çelik2, Özlem Orunç Kılınç3, Adnan Ayan4, Gürkan Akyıldız5, Özge Oktay Ayan6, Yaşar Göz7, Kıvanç İrak8, Gül Görmez9
1Siirt University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Siirt, Türkiye
2Siirt University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Parasitology, Siirt, Türkiye
3Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Özalp Vocational School of Higher Education, Department of Medical Laboratory Technician, Van, Türkiye
4Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Genetics, Van, Türkiye
5Marmara University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Basic Health Sciences, İstanbul, Türkiye
6Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, School of Medicine, Department of Medical Parasitology, Van, Türkiye
7Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Van, Türkiye
8Siirt University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Siirt, Türkiye
9Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Van, Türkiye
Received October 3, 2022
Accepted July 11, 2023
Cryptosporidiosis, one of the main protozoan infections of the last century, is especially dangerous for calves and causes significant economic losses. This research was carried out to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. by microscopic and molecular methods and to determine subtypes in 100 calves up to 6 months old and with diarrhoea in the Siirt Province, Türkiye. As a result of the microscopic examination (Kinyoun’s acid-fast), Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts were found in 8 (8%) of 100 samples. As a result of nested PCR, 826-864 bp specific bands for Cryptosporidium spp. were obtained in 13 (13%) of 100 samples. When the DNA sequences of the SSU rRNA gene were compared with the NCBI Basic Local Alignment Search Tool database, it was determined that eight samples sequence analyses showed 100% similarity with the C. parvum, C. ryanae, and C. bovis samples. The detection of C. parvum, which has zoonotic importance in this study, suggests that calves with diarrhoea may be a source of contamination for other animals and humans. Therefore, animal owners and people in close contact with animals should be informed about the public health of cryptosporidiosis.
Keywords
Funding
This research was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Coordinatorship of the Siirt University within the scope of the project no. 2021-SİÜVET-08.
