Seroprevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum infection of dairy cows in three northern provinces of Thailand determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using recombinant antigen CpP23.

Cryptosporidium parvum is the most frequent parasitic agent that causes diarrhoea in AIDS patients in Thailand. Cryptosporidiosis outbreaks in humans may be attributed to contamination of their drinking water from infected dairy pastures. A 23-kDa glycoprotein of C. parvum (CpP23) is a sporozoite surface protein that is geographically conserved among C. parvum isolates. This glycoprotein is a potentially useful candidate antigen for the diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Therefore, we investigated the seroprevalence of C. parvum infection in dairy cows in northern Thailand using an ELISA based on recombinant CpP23 antigen. Sera were randomly collected from 642 dairy cows of 42 small-holder farmers, which had the top three highest number of the dairy cows' population in Northern Thailand, that included Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Lumpang provinces. The overall seroprevalence of the infection was 4.4%, and the seropositive rates for the three provinces were 3.3% in Chiang Mai, 5.1% in Chiang Rai and 3% in Lumpang. These results suggest that cattle could play a role in zoonotic cryptosporidiosis in Thailand.