Morphological, histopathological and immunofluorescence characterization of Cryptosporidium parvum natural infection in goat kids from Romania

Few studies were conducted to investigate the pathogenesis and to characterize the histopathological alterations in the intestinal mucosa of kids with cryptosporidiosis. In our study, 58 kids were presented for necropsy, and the faeces of another 83 goat kids were studied. Animals were aged between 1 day and 3 weeks. Infection was confirmed by oocyst identification in the faeces (Ziehl-Neelsen stain modified by Henriksen). Gross examination was followed by examination of the tissue using histopathological procedures (Hematoxylin-Eosin stain), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and immunofluorescence. Pathological changes occurred mainly in the ileum, but also jejunum and caecum of the infected animals, at the apical surface of intestinal epithelial cells. Oocysts appeared as round or oval formations, with a diameter ≤4.5 μm, sometimes covering the atrophic and denudated free border of intestinal villi. Most histological and morphological characteristics of infection with C. parvum are common on the whole to other Cryptosporidium spp. Massive dentification of cryptospodiosis in kids indicates the possible role of these animals as disease reservoirs for other animals and for humans. This is the first study to characterize the Cryptosporidium infection by confocal technique and SEM in Romania