Seasonal monitoring of Cryptosporidium species and their genetic diversity in neonatal calves on two large-scale farms in Xinjiang, China

To find out whether and how the prevalence and genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium in neonatal calves vary with the season, 380 fecal samples from neonatal calves on two large-scale farms in Xinjiang (Alar and Wensu) were studied using molecular biology techniques. Cryptosporidium was detected in 48.7% (185/380) of the samples and was most frequent in summer (56.8%), followed by spring (50.0%), winter (46.8%), and autumn (41.7%; p 0.05). Calves with diarrhea seem to be more likely infected by Cryptosporidium than those without diarrhea (p 0.01). We also found that C. parvum (n = 173), C. bovis (n = 7), and C. ryanae (n = 3) were the Cryptosporidium species detected in this study, and co-infections of these three species (n = 2) were also identified. Two subtypes (IIdA14G1 and IIdA15G1) of C. parvum were identified, and both can infect human. These results also show that neonatal calves commonly suffer diarrhea caused by C. parvum throughout the year.