ABSTRACT
The domestication of ruminants dates back to the end of the Old Stone Age period of prehistory. An abomasal form of cryptosporidiosis was found in cattle in the west central US in 1985, caused by a species of Cryptosporidium apparently indistinguishable from Cryptosporidium muris, the species originally found in a mouse stomach by Tyzzerin 1907. The main presenting sign of cryptosporidiosis in calves is diarrhea associated with profuse shedding of infective oocysts. Only two species of Cryptosporidium have been identified in ruminants. The intestinal species, C. parvum, is the one which most commonly causes ruminant cryptosporidiosis. However, an abomasal species, C. muris, has been found in cattle in the US and in mountain gazelles in the Federal Republic of Germany. Two surveys of cryptosporidial infection in neonatal exotic ruminants have been carried out. C. parvum infection was confirmed either histologically or by auramine O staining of feces smears in blackbuck, sable antelope, scimitar-horned oryx, and fringe-eared oryx.
