Detection of Natural Infection with Cryptosporidiosis in Domestic Poultry from Sulaymaniyah Province/ Iraq

CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS is Cryptosporidiosis is a zoonotic protozoan infection caused by Cryptosporidium spp., with a public health concern. It has been reported widely across several countries in both wild and domestic birds. The study was designed to find out the Cryptosporidium parasite in different species of domestic poultry from Sulaymaniyah province northern region of Iraq. The study was carried during the period between June 2022 to February 2023, a total of 215 fresh dropping samples were collected from chicken, turkey, duck, geese and pigeons. All samples were screened for the presence of Cryptosporidium parasite by microscopy using fecal flotation and modified Zeihl- Neelsen staining method for recognition the oocyst stage of the parasite. Intestinal tissue samples were also fixed in 10% buffered formalin and stained with (H&E) for histopathology, to find out the lesions. The overall infection rate of Cryptosporidiosis was 29.30% among the examined poultry species, with the higher prevalence of 38.00% in chicken, followed by pigeon 35.56% then in geese 24.44%, and turkey 22.86%, and a lower prevalence of 22.50% was reported in duck. Histopathology from intestinal tissue revealed sever epithelial damage, ulceration with sloughing of villi, accompanied by infiltration of inflammatory cells with extensive edema. The results of the present study provide the first data on the occurrence of Cryptosporidium infection from domestic poultry in the study area.