A Pathological Study of Cryptosporidiosis in Native Turkeys of lran

Objective: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. Results: 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.