A Pathological Study of Cryptosporidiosis in Native Turkeys of lran

To show occurrence of cryptosporidiosis in native turkeys of lran by means of histopathological and parasitological methods. Design:Descriptive study.Animals:Fifty native turkey poults suffered from growth retardation,long standing diarrhea or both were obtained from native turkey raising areas of Iran (northern and western provinces) Procedure:The clinical signs and symptoms of poults were recorded and fecal samples were taken and stained with modified Zeih1-Neelsen method. Poults were sacrified and necropsied tissue samples collected from different parts of small and large intestine and processed for histopathological examination. Statistical analysis: kappa & Mcnemar test.

Histopathological studies revealed that 13 out of 50 cases were infected with cryptosporidium spp.' Histopathologic changes were seen as of hyperplasia of epithelial cells, hypertrophy of crypts, atrophy, fusion and shortness of the villi and increase in the number of leukocytes in the lamina propria' Furthermore, 5 out of 13 cases were positive for cryptosporidium organisms in fecal smears in stainig with modified Zeih1-Neelsen method.The results of fecal examination and histopathological study was not correlated. Clinicat implications: since the cryptosporidium is pathogenic to turkeys the infection is hazardous not only for native turkey husbandary but also for infected turkeys. This conditin could be a source of infection for industrial poultry production. Furthermore, the best cryptosporidial diagnostic method is histopathologic examination.