Abstract
Cryptosporidium is a common enteric parasite in chickens. A total of 812 fecal specimens were collected from 11 broiler farms in Zhejiang Province, China, and analyzed by nested PCR amplification based on the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene. The overall infection rate of Cryptosporidium was 6.3% (51/812), and five of 11 farms were Cryptosporidium positive. Broilers aged > 90 days accounted for the highest infection rate of 16.1% (6/56), followed by those aged 30–60 days (10.6%, 38/358) and 60–90 days (4/378, 1.1%). Two Cryptosporidium species were identified by sequence analysis, with the predominant species being C. baileyi (96.1%, 49/51) and the minor infection being C. meleagridis (3.9%, 2/51). Based on the 60-kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene, two C. meleagridis-positive isolates were identified as one known subtype, IIIbA24G1R1. This study indicated the common occurrence of C. baileyi in broiler chickens in this region and low zoonotic transmission potential of Cryptosporidium to humans.
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Data availability
All sequences obtained in this study are available and have been submitted to the GenBank database hosted by the NCBI.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to breeders for their help during the collection of fecal specimens.
Funding
This work was supported by the Program for Young and Middle-aged Leading Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Xinjiang Production & Construction Group (2018CB034).
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MQ and XHL conceived and designed the experiments. XWF, JHD, and TYS collected the fecal samples. ZJZ, FCY, JNZ, and HCS carried out the PCR assays and sequence analyses. XWF and XHL drafted and revised the current manuscript. XHL and ZJZ prepared Figs. 1 and 2. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Feng, X., Deng, J., Zhang, Z. et al. Dominant infection of Cryptosporidium baileyi in broiler chickens in Zhejiang Province, China. Parasitol Res 122, 1993–2000 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07898-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07898-0