Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Ruminant Diseases and Immunology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #80194
Title: STRATEGIES FOR THE CONTROL OF CRYPTOSPORIDIUM PARVUM INFECTION IN CALVES

Author
item HARP, JAMES
item GOFF, JESSE

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/24/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Cryptosporidium parvum is an intestinal parasite that causes diarrhea in many animals. It is a common cause of disease in young calves, and has been responsible for large outbreaks of waterborne diarrheal disease in people. There are no drugs available to treat the disease, and vaccines to prevent the disease are in the early stages of development. This paper presents ways in which farmers can minimize disease and death due to Cryptosporidium in young calves through careful management and hygiene when handling sick calves. These techniques will also reduce transmission of disease to people. Use of this information will reduce economic losses to the farmer, and will help to prevent contamination of the environment with Cryptosporidium.

Technical Abstract: Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite now recognized as one of the leading causes of diarrhea in young calves. To date, there are no available drugs or preventive measures available for the control of this disease. Other intestinal pathogens such as Escherichia coli and rotavirus can be successfully controlled by vaccinating the dam, resulting in protective antibody which is transferred to the calf in colostrum. However, C. parvum is not amenable to this type of protocol. This is because C. parvum is an intracellular pathogen, and thus primarily controlled by cell-mediated, rather than humoral, immune responses. We demonstrated that calves receiving colostrum from hyperimmune dams every 4 h for 7 d were not protected against experimental C. parvum infection. Other studies have shown marginal protection of calves receiving colostrum from cows with extremely high titers of antibody to C. parvum. Another approach is to generate active, cell-mediated immunity in the calf. We have developed an oral vaccine that, when given to calves at birth, protects against experimental challenge with C. parvum.