Neonatal Rat; A Suitable Animal Model for Experimental Cryptosporidiosis

Background: Cryptosporidiosis is a major public health problem for neonatal livestock worldwide. Cryptosporidium parvum infects intestinal epithelial cells via contaminated food or drinking water and leads to cryptosporidiosis. Most of the animal model studies on infectivity of C. parvumare conducted on the neonatal mice. Objectives: The current study aimed at evaluating the infectivity of C. parvum in neonatal rat as an animal model. Methods: A dose of 100,000 to 120,000 C. parvum oocysts (Iowa strain, BTF Company, Sydney, Australia) was orally inoculated in a group of 30 neonatal Wistar rats aged 2 days old. Eight days postinfection, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon, and rectum were removed and contents were homogenized and purified using sucrose gradient method. Results: Our results indicated that 6 to 12 million C. parvum was found per rat Conclusions: Analysis of the study results revealed that the neonatal rat could be used as an alternative animal model to investigate C. parvum.