Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

STUDYING THE PREVALENCE OF CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS AMONG THE CALVES OF SISTAN AREA, IRAN

Abolghasem Safdari, Mehdi Jahantigh, Mansour Dabirzadeh and Ali Afshari Moghadam

Abstract

Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic zoonosis which is of protozoan type and causes long term diarrhea in the cases that their immune systems are weakened.The prevalence of the mentioned parasite among the calves of Sistan has been studied. The feces samples of 120 under 6 months calves in Sistan’s cattle sheds were taken from Mehr of 1391 to Mehr of 1392. After delivering samples to the laboratory and concentrating by Formol-Ether method, they were examined by corrected Ziehl-Neelsen staining method and optical microscope in order to determine the existence of Cryptosporidium oocytes. The prevalence of the mentioned protozoan in the samples was 11.6%, also 15.78% of male cases and 7.83% of female ones were infected. Regarding the prevalence of Cryptosporidium protozoan in Sistan area and its zoonotic aspects in human societies, controlling the above mentioned parasite is of significant importance.