Overview on Cryptosporidium bovis and Its Effect on Calves in Some Governorates in Egypt

Abstract

The present study was conducted to elucidate the prevalence of <i>Cryptosporidium bovis</i> in suckling and weaned cattle calves (<i>Bubalus bubalis</i>) from different governorates in northern, middle, and southern Egypt, such as Behera, Menofia, Qaliubiya, Assiut, and Sohag; result revealed that from the overall examined fecal samples (<i>n</i> = 825), the overall prevalence was 7.27%, the highest significant infection rate was in young suckling calves less than one month (8.2%), and seasonally, winter season has the highest significant level (11.24%), but sex and locality were of no significant effect on the prevalence of infection in this study. Gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the 18SSU-rRNA gene of the local bovine isolate were performed, and it was found that <i>C. bovis</i> genotype was highly similar to human isolate, which provoke the zoonotic transmission of bovine isolate to humans and identified as a potential source for human cryptosporidiosis infection in Egypt.