Prevalence and Molecular Epidemiology of Cryptosporidium Infection in Clarias gariepinus Fish in Egypt

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the prevalence and molecular detection of Cryptosporidium spp. in catfish (Clarias gariepinus).

Methods: A total of 300 Carias gariepinus fish were collected from two freshwater sources: the Nile River (180) and drainage canals (120). The stomach and intestine epithelium of each individual fish sample were screened by modified Ziehl-Neelsen (mZN) staining technique for the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts followed by the serological survey for detection of Cryptosporidium antibodies using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and molecular characterization using complemented DNA polymerase chain reaction (cPCR).

Results: ELISA showed higher prevalence of 69.3% than that prevalence obtained by mZN, 64% for the total examined Clarias gariepinus fish. Also, higher prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection 65.5% and 75.8% obtained by ELISA than 61.1% and 68.3% by mZN, in both fish groups from Nile River and Drainage canal, respectively. PCR analysis revealed the expected positive bands at 1056 bp. DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis proved that the positive-PCR Cryptosporidium isolate identified in the present study was Cryptosporidium molnari.

Conclusion: Freshwater fishes (Clarias gariepinus) are subjected to a high infection rate with Cryptosporidium spp.; the drainage canals obtained fishes showed higher prevalence than that collected from Nile River which indicates an important public health problem and a potential risk of drainage canals in Egypt. ELISA showed higher prevalence of cryptosporidiosis than mZN, for the total examined Clarias gariepinus fish and phylogenetic analyses confirmed this protozoal organism to be a novel species of Cryptosporidium molnari.

Keywords: Clarias gariepinus; Cryptosporidium molnari; Molecular epidemiology; Prevalence.