Attempted Therapy and Prophylaxis of Cryptosporidiosis in Calves by Administration of Sulphadimidine

Fischer 0.: Attempted Therapy and Prophylaxis of Cryptosporidiosis in Calves by Administration of Sulphadimidine. Acta vet. Brno, 52, 1983: 183 -190. In an attempt to control natural infection of calves with coccidia of the genus Cryptosporidium Tyzzer, 1910, sulphadimidine was administered to calves aged 1 to 10 weeks prophylactically as a 2 I drench at a daily dose of 30 mg/kg body mass for two 7-day courses seven days apart or at a daily dose of 40 mg/kg body mass for 14 and 7 days at an interval of 6 days or therapeutically as a 1 I drench at a daily dose of 200 mg/kg body mass for three 3-day courses three days apart. These treatments had practically no effect on cryptosporidia infection, occurrence of diarrhoea and gains in body mass. In the herd under study the proportion of calves shedding cryptosporidia was rather high but the cryptosporidial burden was low. The predominant picture was light infection with irregular shedding of oocysts without clinical sings of disease. Besides cryptosporidial oocysts, faecal examination revealed cysts of flagellates of the genus Giardia Ktinstler, 1882. Cryptosporidium, Giardia, calf diarrhoea, body mass gain, flotation methods. Coccidia of the genus Cryptosporidium are regarded as one of possible causes of diarrhoea in calves, whether occurring in combination with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, rota viruses and coronaviruses (Morin et al. 1976; Nagy et al. 1980) or in herds where no other known causative agents of diarrhoeal disease were detected (Tzipori et al. 1980). Nagy et al. (1980) using sulphoquinoxaline plus polymyxin therapy in a herd where enteropathogenic E. coli and cryptosporidia were detected reported reduced mortality and improved general health of the calves. Previous therapy in this herd with polymyxin alone proved unsuccessful, atlhough E. coli were sensitive to polymyxin. Preventive administration of sulphadimidine against natural infection of calves with coccidia of the genus Eimeria was reported to produce a rise in average daily gain in body mass by 0.2 kg (Celeda et al. 1980). Boch and Supperer (1977) recommended sulphonamides for treatment of coccidioses including cryptosporidiosis. Moon et al. (1982) testing the efficiency of sulphadimidine in calves infected experimentally with cryptosporidia could not prevent the development of infection. The present study was designed to test the effect of sulphadimidine in the treatment of cryptosporidiosis and to find whether the development of infection can be prevented if sulphadimidine is administered to calves before Cryptosporidium oocysts appear in the faeces. Material and Methods Fifty-nine calves (31 heifers and 28 bull calves) of mixed breed (Holstein Bohemian Pied Red Pied Lowland) kept in a calf house of the co-operative farm "JZD Rude armady", Hustopece (district Bfeclav), were subjected to regular faecal examination. The mode of calf rearing in this calf house has been described by Mensik and Salajka (1975) and Mensik et al. (1977). Calves originating from three neighbouring cow houses were separated from the dams immediately after