LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Unpublished statistics from the Calgary Health Region indicate 60 percent of people infected with cryptosporidium were infected by cattle.
The infection could have been contracted through a direct association with cattle or human-to-human transmission.
In an update on the gastrointestinal parasites giardia and cryptosporidium at the recent beef science seminar in Lethbridge, Merle Olson, a microbiologist from the University of Calgary, said three genotypes of giardia have been identified in cattle and another appears in hoofed animals.
Giardia and cryptosporidium are two simple-celled parasites responsible for causing considerable misery in humans and animals.
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“They can survive in many environments and it is one of the few parasites that can survive in the acid of the stomach,” Olson said.
“They are extremely difficult to kill.”
Cryptosporidium is not common in people, but people can spread it among themselves in such places as public swimming pools
Human sewage is one of the main sources of cryptosporidium and giardia that infect people.
Both parasites are found in intensive livestock operations and ordinary farms, in clean and polluted water, and in the soil.
They are the major causes of diarrhea in beef and dairy herds and often go unrecognized. Antibiotics have no effect. Although a giardia vaccine for dogs and cats is available, it has not been evaluated for cattle.
Tissue samples from infected cattle are almost always selenium deficient.
Cryptosporidium parvum is common in calves and occurs in the first few weeks of life. Giardia infects them between the ages of four and 10 weeks of age. Infections are persistent.
“Virtually all dairy calves develop cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis, but only some animals develop diarrhea,” he said.
Cryptosporidiosis is less frequently observed in beef calves, but all carry giardiasis.
Both cause pale, yellow diarrhea in animals and compromise immune systems, making secondary infections a possibility.
Cryptosporidium andersoni is one of the more important diseases in calves older than two months and animals on high-energy diets such as those fed to dairy and feedlot animals.
It impairs feed conversion so they are slow to finish and it reduces milk production.
