Cryptosporidiosis in domestic animals and humans

CRYPTOSPORIDIUM (Protozoa: Apicomplexa) belongs to the large sub-order of eimerian coccidia, which cause coccidiosis in many domestic animal hosts. Cryptosporidium species have a wide range of hosts including man and many other mammalian species, birds, and even fish and reptiles. Clinical illness and diarrhoea caused by Cryptosporidium species have been reported in young calves, lambs, goats, deer, and in humans of all ages. Many isolates of cryptosporidium that infect mammalian species lack host specificity, thus any animal species, once infected, can act as a source of infection for another.